"They’re finally here! I was starting to rust over from the wait!"

Levi waved his hand, signaling for the two Jackal Wolfmen to rejoin the ranks.

Hog was still up ahead scouting the Alliance Army’s movements, so he hadn’t returned.

Fortunately, Levi had trained this Scout Squad—currently only three strong—and they had managed to gather all the essential intelligence on the enemy.

The Alliance Army numbered over six hundred, composed mainly of Goblins and Kobolds, with some Giants mixed in.

The mention of Giants did surprise Levi.

An adult of this species stands over a Tri-Blade high, and some chieftains can even reach the height of a Quadruple Blade. They are true Giant Beasts.

A Giant Tribe has thirty to forty members at most. After accounting for females and young, only about ten are adults capable of fighting.

Levi might have been wary of a hundred Giants, but the Jackal Wolf Scout had specifically kept an eye out for this powerful Race and determined there were only about ten of them.

He could take care of about ten of them all by himself.

A mournful, low-pitched horn blast sounded from the simple watchtower on the hill, and the army of High Cliff Castle began to assemble in an orderly fashion.

Swords were drawn and Armor donned. The heavy tramp of feet echoed across the open ground of High Cliff Castle, then fell silent.

Except for the Beastmen still on duty in the watchtowers, fifty-one Beastman Barbarians formed up neatly into a small square formation.

A silent, murderous aura hung over High Cliff Castle. Even the warm morning light seemed to carry a hint of chill.

Zat stood at the very front, wearing a ridiculously oversized Horned Helmet. His face was solemn, and behind him were the bloodthirsty Beastman Barbarians.

"Chief, all forty-nine Warriors of the Burning Corps are present!"

Thanks to Levi’s strict requirements, Zat’s arithmetic was improving quickly.

"My lord, the Feder Warriors are all present as well," Jos said with a hand to his chest in a salute. Behind him stood the Feder Warriors, lips pursed and Longbows on their backs.

The difference between rookies and veterans was starkly clear in that moment. The Beastman Barbarians were all visibly excited and eager for a fight.

Some of the younger-looking Feder Warriors, however, looked panicked, nervously wringing their hands. They had clearly never experienced a real war.

With the help of two Feder Warriors, Levi was donning his Three-Layered Heavy Armor. The innermost layer was Chain Armor, followed by a layer of Plated Chain Armor from the system store—made of small, interlinked iron plates—and finally a large suit of Plate Armor on the outside.

A layer of Cotton Cloth was added between each of the three layers to prevent them from grinding against each other and to provide extra cushioning.

He was armed to the teeth.

The three layers of Armor weighed over two hundred pounds—enough to make a packhorse buckle—but it didn’t seem to affect Levi at all. His legs remained nimble and swift.

Of the fifty-one Beastmen, only ten Barbarians, including Zat, were clad in Iron Armor. The rest wore only tattered Leather Armor.

It wasn’t that Levi didn’t want them all in Iron Armor; the Gold Coins he had acquired from clearing out Wilderness Tribes recently were only enough to purchase equipment for ten Beastmen.

As for the Bronze Artifacts, since no merchant caravans had passed by High Cliff Castle and with the matter of the Wilderness Alliance Army, their sale had been delayed. He still hadn’t offloaded them.

The system store’s buyback prices for weapons and equipment were reasonable, but its prices for antiques like these were very low.

After all, antiques are only valuable to the right buyer. In the system’s evaluation, they were just scrap metal.

"Levi, do you have a plan?" Baisitina asked, her small face tense. She, too, had been affected by the solemn atmosphere and was worried about the coming battle.

"A plan? First, we have the Warriors let loose a few volleys of arrows, kill a few dozen. Then a round of Javelins. Then we charge, cut down one or two hundred of them, and the rest will naturally break. After that, we just clean up the mess. Done!"

Levi shifted his body, adjusting the position of his Armor to make it fit more snugly.

"Huh?" Baisitina wanted to peer through his helmet to see if the person inside the Armor was still Levi.

Anyone who wasn’t a complete military idiot would know that you couldn’t possibly fight a direct, head-on battle against such a massive numerical disadvantage.

"What else would we do?"

Levi took the Giant Sword that two Feder Warriors had carried out for him and walked, step by heavy step, to the front of the two formations.

The Giant Sword, taller than himself and as wide as a man’s palm, he rested effortlessly on his shoulder.

This was a Giant Sword forged from Fine Steel that he had specially purchased from the system store. It weighed over a hundred pounds, with a blade so long and wide it was no exaggeration to call it a door plank.

"According to our intelligence, the enemy has over six hundred soldiers, more than five times our number! Do you think that’s a lot?"

Levi’s voice boomed from within his Cross Helmet.

Jos didn’t understand Levi’s tactic. Announcing the full number of the enemy was something no commander leading troops into battle would ever do.

Such a massive disparity in numbers would undoubtedly affect morale. The common practice was to deliberately understate the enemy’s numbers to a more acceptable figure, or simply not tell the soldiers at all.

In contrast to the Feder Warriors, most of whom looked panicked upon hearing the specific numbers, the Beastman Barbarians all burst out laughing.

"That’s not a lot! If you ask us, it’s too few!"

"That’s right, it’s not a lot at all! If each of us kills five of them, we’ll wipe them all out! And for a hastily thrown-together army like this, they’ll break on their own after we kill two or three hundred."

"In other words, if each of us kills just two enemies, we win this war."

"Are you telling me you can’t even handle two enemies?!"

"A bunch of Wilderness rats! I’ll kill twenty of ’em myself, at least!"

In response to Levi’s slightly mocking tone, Zat was the first to roar.

"I can kill ten, too!"

A crowd of Beastman Barbarians raised their weapons, each one roaring in agreement.

They were proud and arrogant, supremely confident in their own martial prowess. If they couldn’t even take care of two enemies, they might as well go back to their Tribe and herd sheep.

This scene left both Jos and Baisitina dumbfounded.

’Wait a minute. Is that how you do the math?’

’But for some strange reason, it felt like there was nothing wrong with his logic.’

The initially anxious Feder Warriors were swept up by the Beastman Barbarians’ confidence. They went from murmuring their agreement to shouting along with them at the top of their lungs.

"Their morale is high."

Levi said to Baisitina with a smile, then pointed his Giant Sword toward the lands before High Cliff Castle. "March out!"

The Wilderness was not all flat grassland; there were still sloped areas.

It would be foolish not to take advantage of this terrain. Holding the high ground was a crucial advantage for a defending force.

"Form up right here!"

The troops of High Cliff Castle arrived atop a slope. Levi positioned the Beastman Barbarians in the front, with the bow-wielding Feder Warriors in the rear.

To be honest, Levi hadn’t even wanted to bring the Feder Warriors along. Most of these soldiers were still greenhorns, completely incomparable to the seasoned Beastman Barbarians.

Casualties would be inevitable once the fighting started.

He would be heartbroken for a long time if even one of them died. However, after long consideration, he had decided to bring them along after all.