Zat landed a heavy slap, which seemed to vent some of his anger. He grabbed the Dara Warrior and dragged the black panther toward the rear.

"Chief, I’m going too!" Muto clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking loudly.

"And me!"

"And me!"

...

A whole crowd of Barbarians, more than half the group, rushed off after him.

In their hearts, their Chief was now no different from one of the Gods. An insult to him was a graver offense than an insult to themselves.

They would unswervingly defend everything about their Chief, even at the cost of their own lives.

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

Soon, the sound of heavy slaps echoed from the clearing, followed by a wet crunch like a watermelon hitting the ground. Only then did it finally end.

The Beastman Barbarians returned to the formation, each one looking as refreshed and satisfied as if they’d just chewed on mint leaves.

The party from High Cliff Castle resumed their journey, leaving behind two heads still spurting blood. One of the faces was frozen in an expression of regret.

Baisitina didn’t find the actions of Levi and his Beastman Barbarians to be excessive in the slightest.

In fact, she found it quite satisfying.

If Levi hadn’t intervened to save her just now, she would have been killed by that arrow.

The Dara Warrior had clearly recognized her and planned to kill her first, leaving the Feder Remnants leaderless.

The closer they got to the battlefield, the more vigilant the High Cliff Castle party became.

To prevent another ambush arrow from the Dala Tribe, Levi lifted Baisitina off her horse and had her walk behind him, flanked on both sides by his Barbarians.

This way, even if someone tried to shoot her again, they wouldn’t be able to hit her. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

’With his power, incoming arrows seemed to move as slowly as a crawling turtle, and catching one with his bare hands was no great feat. Still, it was one thing to dodge an arrow you see coming, but another to defend against one from the shadows.’

He wasn’t one to be overconfident.

For the rest of the journey, they strangely encountered no more Dala Tribe Scouts.

By now, the sky had finally dimmed. In the jungle, they occasionally saw corpses that hadn’t yet been cleared away.

To Baisitina’s relief, all the bodies belonged to the Dala Tribe; there were no Feder Remnants among them.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the bodies on the mountain path grew more numerous, with both Dala Tribe members and Feder Remnants among the dead.

The corpses were all fresh, a clear sign that, just as the two Knights had said, the Dala Tribe had only just resolved—or just finished preparing—to launch their assault on the Feder Tribe today.

The Feder Remnants had clearly put a great deal of thought into the construction of their home.

Their camp was built on a high slope within a canyon. It was backed on three sides by towering cliffs. The front-facing slope had been cut vertically, creating a sheer drop of two blade-lengths. Atop this vertical drop, they had used stones to construct a wall four blade-lengths high.

This wall was a full four blade-lengths high from the outside, but only about two blade-lengths high from the inside.

Even more ingeniously, the wall was dotted with fist-sized, downward-sloping holes. Defenders merely had to thrust their Long Spears through these openings to easily harvest the lives of the attackers below.

Inside the walls, several watchtowers, three to four blade-lengths high, had also been constructed, allowing for easy ranged attacks.

This camp already had the makings of a true fortress. In the barren Wilderness, it was the very definition of a place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Several hundred stout men were fiercely assaulting the camp. They were clad in beast hides, with bright feathers in their hair and their faces smeared with unknown pigments. On average, they stood 1.9 blade-lengths tall.

Behind them, a group of Archers with jungle bows were firing sparsely in high arcs toward the camp.

They weren’t aiming for kills, merely trying to suppress the defenders.

Unfortunately, against such a well-defended position, their efforts had little effect.

"Damn," the Lord said, very pleased as he lay prone on a small hillock. "No wonder your hundred or so remaining Warriors could hold off a fierce assault from nearly five hundred men. Which genius designed this camp?"

He had been afraid the whole way here that he would be a step too late, that the Feder Remnants would have already been overrun. A siege battle would have been far more difficult than a surprise attack.

"It was the handiwork of a master architect from the Feder Kingdom," Baisitina said with a touch of pride.

Although the camp’s walls were far from towering, in Levi’s eyes, the design was small but perfectly formed—basically flawless.

The Dala Tribe’s assault was ferocious, but the Feder Remnants’ counterattack was just as fierce.

Archers in the watchtowers precisely picked off the attacking Dara Warriors, while others with Long Spears thrust down from the holes in the wall, stabbing enemies from above.

Though the Dara Warriors were fearless and had the advantage in numbers, the defenders, using their walls, had managed to fight them to a temporary stalemate.

The equipment of these Dara Warriors was far superior to that of the Wilderness Bandits they had faced earlier. Not only did each one carry an iron weapon, but they also wore homemade Beast Hide Armor.

Compared to the contingent from High Cliff Castle, however, they were still far behind. Not only did each of the Beastman Barbarians wield a weapon of Fine Steel, but they had also acquired several sets of Iron Armor from the Giants after the battle against the Wilderness Alliance Army.

Fifteen of them were now equipped with it, a number worth celebrating.

The rest, though without Iron Armor, were all clad in Leather Armor.

Levi had purchased all this Leather Armor from the System. While the System’s prices were a bit higher than the real world’s, the quality was beyond reproach.

Its defensive capabilities were several notches above the homemade Beast Hide Armor of the Dala Tribe.

’Once I capture this iron mine, High Cliff Castle’s military industry is bound to get on track. I won’t have to spend a fortune buying equipment from the System anymore.’

High Cliff Castle was too far from Debei. If Levi wanted to buy equipment, he either had to wait ten days to half a month for a delivery or spend extra to purchase it from the System’s shop.

Neither option was ideal. For High Cliff Castle, the best solution was to establish its own military industry and become self-sufficient.

’Therefore, I must take this iron mine!’

Looking back at the Beastman Barbarians lying prone in the dense forest, Levi grinned from within his Iron Helmet.

In the black of night, the silent troop was like a pack of savage beasts waiting to pounce.

"Zat, take twelve of our brothers. After I charge down and draw their attention, you go and pull the fangs from those damn Archers for me!"

"Muto, you take three Warriors and stay here. Protect Tina."

Levi quickly laid out his tactics.

He hadn’t bothered with tactics against the Wilderness Alliance Army earlier. That ragtag bunch didn’t even have a means of ranged attack and naturally wasn’t worthy of his serious consideration.

But this Dala Tribe had forty to fifty Archers in their rear. If left unchecked, he might be fine in his Three-Layered Iron Armor, but the Beastmen in their Leather Armor would inevitably take some arrows.

"Levi, don’t worry about me! I’ll hide here and be fine," Baisitina said quickly, surprised that he would split his forces to protect her at such a critical moment.

Levi ignored her completely. He had no desire to go through all the trouble of defeating the Dala Tribe, only to have Baisitina get captured and used as a hostage to threaten him.

He drew the man-high Two-Handed Giant Sword from the System and gripped it firmly. Behind him, thirty Beastman Barbarians rose from the ground, silently tightening their grips on their Fine Steel War Axes.

"Full charge!"