Chapter 484: Fight to the End, Humanity (Part 2)

Chapter 484: Chapter 428: Fight to the End, Humanity (Part 2)

He redirected his Spiritual Power. The spiritual link to another carrion vulture monitoring the Half-Beastman army had been severed. To prepare for this battle, Leech had spent the last two days constantly ordering Rocket to hunt vultures. To a Horse-headed Eagle, the desert’s large, extremely dangerous raptors were nothing more than slowpokes. It could easily catch a large batch and guarantee the bodies were free of external wounds.

Whenever one vulture’s connection was broken, two more would fly out. Leech had to ensure he maintained absolute vision during the war.

Unfortunately, in this battle, Leech’s troops were unable to break through the blockade from start to finish. They could only watch as the Half-Beastman forces quickly built a high tower in the distance, seizing the advantage in vision.

If he forced a direct confrontation, he could send the Palace Level Corpse Ghost Jonney to charge over and obstruct the tower’s construction, but there was little point in doing so.

A collapsed tower could be rebuilt, but he only had one isolated and unsupported Palace Level Corpse Ghost. Once it was surrounded, it would be very difficult to rescue.

As for his gains, he had collected twenty corpses of Demon Beastmen and Mad Beastmen, of which only two were Demon Beastmen.

However, his side had also lost ten Transcendents.

The bodies were immediately sent back to the castle, where they would be converted into Extraordinary Corpse Ghosts at top speed, becoming part of Leech’s power.

Corpses that were too severely damaged to be repaired with gold would still have their Extraordinary matter extracted.

Leech turned around, mounted on Rocket.

Behind him was a stretch of sand stained red with blood. Chunks of flesh and gore littered the ground, making it difficult to tell which part belonged to whom.

Such was the cruelty of war. Even though Leech had been through several wars, this bloody battle still sent a slight, sharp pain through his head.

Moreover, this war was different from any other Leech had ever encountered.

The Dwarf Half-Beastmen and Mad Beastmen attacked with a frenzy, like starving wolves deliberately denied food for days. They showed no regard for their own lives, thinking only of desperately tearing off a piece of flesh.

Leech’s gaze passed over the brutal battlefield, looking further to the rear.

After the earlier attack from the Half-Beastmen who had broken through their lines, the Mercenaries had also been forced into a fight. It looked like things weren’t going too well for them.

Leech admitted that he had always looked down on this group of unscrupulous scoundrels. Whether as the brigands who robbed travelers, the bastards who raped farmers’ daughters, or the demons who reveled in slaughter in the memories of slaves, Mercenaries always played the villain. Most importantly, never in history had a Mercenary been a hero or a figure of justice. Breaking contracts was their stereotype, and betraying agreements was commonplace. What Leech found most unacceptable was their willingness to defect to the enemy and raise their swords against their own homeland. It seemed as long as the price was right, they would sacrifice anything.

Therefore, in this war against the Half-Beastmen, Leech had left them behind to serve as cannon fodder without the slightest guilt.

But seeing the varied expressions on the Mercenaries’ faces, another thought occurred to him. ‘Even if it’s for the greater good, I should still organize them for a more effective resistance. Lisu Muma’s performance proved that.’

Similarly, Leech had his own selfish motives regarding the Half-Beastmen. He wanted to use this great war to gain more power.

‘Right now, I’m probably the only one who can mass-produce Transcendents. The Half-Beastman army is selflessly providing the raw materials. It would be a real waste not to take advantage of it.’

‘He was also well aware that in the face of a racial war, personal gains and losses were not important. When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact.’

‘If it weren’t for that traitor to humanity, Prince George, Leech might have taken a more stable approach. He could have hunkered down and developed slowly, occasionally taking advantage of skirmishes and gathering other forces to eliminate the Half-Beastmen together. At most, he would have salvaged a few dozen Extraordinary Half-Beastman corpses as material.’ It was precisely Prince George who gave Leech this sense of urgency, making him want to become powerful all at once.

‘If I can seize the power of the Half-Beastmen, I’ll have what it takes to truly step onto the stage of noble warfare. I’ll have enough confidence to face Prince George.’

‘If I fail, I’ll just slink back to my territory and hide. It won’t be much different from before, aside from losing a dozen or two Extraordinary Corpse Ghosts.’

Lisu Muma approached Leech on her warhorse.

Gazing at the figure in intricately patterned dragon-bone armor, riding a winged Flying Horse, her heart beat a little faster.

“As you can see!”

Leech raised his voice. “Those are our enemies, from across the sea!”

Everyone stared at Leech, even holding their breath so they could hear his every word clearly.

“They are Half-Beastmen! Vicious and cruel, they love to eat anything—especially humans!”

A stir of chaos went through the crowd, but it quickly settled down.

They had all seen that for themselves.

Leech continued to shout, “They are endless in number! They want to occupy every mountain, every river, and every field on the Lu Leiyi Continent! You can choose to run, but they will find you eventually!”

He gently patted his Horse-headed Eagle, Rocket, and Rocket spread its wings.

A flap of its wings kicked up a gale of wind and sand.

Lisu Muma, who was closest, and the warhorse beneath her both whinnied. She was forced to shut her eyes and mouth and shield her face with her arm.

The Mercenaries a little further away were not spared the torrent of sand either, each one covering their mouth and nose.

The Horse-headed Eagle flapped its wings gently, carrying Leech into the air, bobbing up and down.

This made it easy for everyone to see him and, likewise, for his voice to reach everyone’s ears.

Many lords would deliver a pre-battle speech to stir up feelings of honor, anger, excitement, or the will to protect.

It was just that Mercenaries were a more unruly and noisy bunch.

“Is the world ending?” someone shouted.

Leech’s gaze shifted, and he spotted a man in the crowd. Next to him stood a short, bald man with a big beard. The voice must have come from one of them.

Everyone looked at him. Some were dismissive, some were worried, and some were filled with rage because their friends or family had just died at the hands of the Half-Beastmen.

Thousands of people, thousands of faces.

The only thing they had in common… was fear.

They had witnessed the power of the Half-Beastmen, their fearlessness in the face of death. They had watched as Baron Porcupine’s army, once considered “invincible,” fought a bitter battle against them and suffered heavy casualties.

Leech raised the Dragon-Slaying Sword in his hand as a passage of words naturally surfaced in his mind.

At the same time, he proclaimed, “I see fear in your eyes. I feel it too. A day may come when the courage of humanity fails, when we forsake our friends and are utterly defeated, but it is not this day!”

“A day may come when evil triumphs over good, and the world of humanity will be completely destroyed, but it is not this day!”

“Today! We fight to the death, for all that people hold dear in this world.”

Just then, on a sand peak to the west, a swarm of black figures emerged. The second wave of the Half-Beastman army had arrived.

Leech, riding his Horse-headed Eagle Rocket, flew over the heads of the Mercenaries, shouting, “Fight to the end, humans!”

‘At this moment, he wasn’t thinking about much. The tangled, chaotic thoughts that always plagued his mind had been swept clean.’

“Fight to the end!” Lisu Muma raised her sword high.

Then, one by one, the Mercenaries raised their weapons.

There were undoubtedly many present who did not agree with Leech’s words. Many were probably thinking to themselves what the future of humanity had to do with them. Others were cursing Baron Porcupine for scheming against them, for forcing them to stay and fight these detestable Half-Beastmen.

But an even larger group of people, driven by anger, terror, resentment, hope, and more, had their will to resist ignited.

Whether they wanted to resist or not, everyone had to raise their weapons. They all understood one thing: the Half-Beastmen would not spare them, nor would they take prisoners.

There was no retreat, only a desperate fight for their lives!

So, at this moment of life and death, what was worth betting everything on? Everyone had their own answer. But if death was inevitable, those influenced by this era would all want the same thing written on their tombstone.

And that was—To die for glory!

A roar like a mountain-collapsing tsunami erupted—chaotic, yet it made the blood boil.

“Fight to the end!”