Greenhorns have to be blooded eventually. Letting them train against this ragtag bunch from the Wilderness was far better than throwing them directly against a regular army later on.

However, he had also instructed Jos to simply lead the Feder Warriors in providing archery support from the perimeter. The charging and melee combat would be left to him and the Beastman Barbarians.

The wait before a battle always felt long. Levi sat on the grass for a full half-hour, long enough to wear a patch of it bald, before a figure riding a Warg Mount finally appeared on the horizon.

"My Lord, the enemy is less than two miles from us."

Hog, who had been scouting ahead, returned. Levi waved him off to the rear to get some rest.

All the Beastman Barbarians who had been resting on the ground took up their weapons and formed a wedge formation. Levi moved to the very front. Behind him were ten Beastmen clad in Iron Armor, and further back were the Beastman Barbarians wearing only Leather Armor.

Some of the Tier One Feder Commoners swallowed nervously, while the veterans gripped their Bows and Arrows tightly.

A few minutes passed, and a massive, teeming column of troops finally appeared on the horizon.

Baisitina, who had come along, felt her last hopes die as she saw the scene. She had been praying that the two Jackal Wolfmen couldn’t count and had exaggerated the enemy’s numbers.

But as it turned out, there were even more of them than reported, not fewer.

High Cliff Castle’s total forces, including the Feder Warriors, numbered just over a hundred. Based on numbers alone, the enemy had a five-to-one advantage.

Under these extremely disadvantageous circumstances, Levi was still planning to hold the Feder Warriors in reserve and have High Cliff Castle’s core troops lead the attack. Fifty against nearly seven hundred—a numerical disparity of more than ten-to-one.

Baisitina’s face grew even paler, and she tightly clutched the hem of her clothes, her palms slick with sweat. Even if she didn’t know much about military matters, she knew that such a massive disparity in numbers was enough to wage a brutal siege.

She had assumed Levi had some grand plan, but it turned out the plan was simply to lead the charge himself.

"Whoa. Where did these poor bastards scrounge up this gear?"

Levi squinted, observing the approaching bandit army with some surprise.

It was a far cry from the typical Wilderness style of using whatever they could get their hands on—even clubs and rocks.

This Alliance Army was not only well-equipped, but they had also roughly organized themselves by troop type.

A mob of Goblins holding mismatched Shields walked at the very front, followed by a group of Kobolds armed with Bone Spears.

On each flank, five towering Giants escorted the massive column forward.

These Giants wielded clubs as large as a man, with broken sheets of iron serving as crude Chest Armor.

In their hands, they led Giant Beasts that were two-and-a-half ren high at the shoulder and over six ren long.

The scales on these Giant Beasts were so dense and orderly they looked like suits of full Iron Armor. They had thick, long tails, each tipped like a giant blade.

These were Wendigo Beasts, raised in captivity by the Giants. Though omnivores, they were foul-tempered and often used in battle.

The tips of their tails could fell a massive tree, and their combat prowess was not to be underestimated.

A few Kobolds in the center of the bloated formation were directing things, maintaining discipline to keep the whole group from falling apart on the march.

’I’ve really seen it all now.’

’A bunch of Wilderness illiterates actually know how to use formations?’

Though the formation was rudimentary, it was enough to surprise Levi.

After all, battles in the Wilderness were usually just a chaotic swarm. To suddenly encounter a group with even the barest resemblance to an army was a shock.

Clearly, there was someone among these Wilderness Natives who knew what they were doing.

"Levi, what are we going to do?" Baisitina asked, her voice laced with despair.

The overwhelming numbers were bad enough, but from the looks of it, this Wilderness Alliance Army was clearly no disorganized mob.

Jos’s expression grew grave. Hiding in the rear, the Feder Remnants were pale-faced. Only the Beastman Barbarians were still laughing cheerfully.

"Prepare to engage!"

Levi roared, hefting the Giant Sword—taller than he was—in one hand and assuming a charging stance.

The blade glinted silver in the sunlight, the unique sheen of metal.

The Wilderness Alliance Army, which had been advancing menacingly, evidently spotted the troops on the hillside and paused for a moment.

Soon, the Kobolds responsible for maintaining order in the bandit horde began to blow frantically on their Bone Whistles, letting out a series of piercing shrieks.

It was the signal to charge!

Urged onward, countless Goblins swarmed up the hill, with the Kobolds right behind them. The ten Giants roared and began their own charge, their huge footfalls making the very ground tremble.

FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH!

As the fastest Goblins entered range, the Feder Warriors drew their Jungle Bows. Arrows soared into the sky, only to suddenly plummet down.

The Goblins, less than 1.4 ren tall, scrambled to hide behind their mismatched Shields.

The leader of this army might have had a few tricks, but not many.

The Shields, carefully prepared to counter ranged attacks from humans on level ground, were useless against the Feder Warriors’ plunging fire from the high ground.

A single volley of arrows took down some thirty of the wilderness bandits.

Seeing how easily the enemy was felled, some of the nervous new Feder recruits began to calm down, nocking and drawing their Bowstrings with a steady, unhurried rhythm.

Volley after volley of arrows taught the rag-clad Wilderness Natives a harsh lesson.

Only the ten Giants paid the arrows no mind. One snatched up a nearby Goblin and hurled it toward the top of the slope, but it lost momentum and fell limply halfway up.

Without waiting for Levi’s command, the Beastman Barbarians habitually let fly with their Javelins to clear a path. After two volleys, another sixty or seventy wilderness bandits fell.

’I wasn’t sure how I was going to clean them all up, but having them gather like this just saves me time!’

Levi snapped his visor shut, hiding his savage grin, and was the first to charge.

The distance between them was now less than thirty paces. The only reason the High Cliff Castle troops had managed to loose several volleys of arrows and two waves of Javelins was because the wilderness bandits were charging uphill.

And thirty paces was the perfect distance to launch a charge.

The Giants unleashed the already agitated Wendigo Beasts. The huge creatures charged forward in a frenzy, a single flick of a tail slicing several Goblins in their path in half at the waist.

Arrows struck their bodies with a series of PINGS, as if hitting sheets of iron.

Their four-to-five-ton bodies thudded against the ground, making the earth tremble slightly.

"Hateful outsiders, meet your death!" a Giant laughed maniacally.

It was as if he could already see the Beastmen being torn in two by the Giant Beasts he had raised.

The charge of the ten Wendigo Beasts caused the bandit legion’s morale to surge once again.

"Ook! Ook!" the Goblins chanted, cheering like madmen as if they were witnessing walking Gods.

"Ook your mother!"

WHOOSH!

Muto flung a Javelin with a flick of his wrist.

But what happened next horrified him, as if he had just seen one of the Undead.