Chapter 254: Battle of Tecks

The Tecks Valley wasn’t large enough to accommodate a full-scale battle involving thousands of soldiers. The mountains, streams, and valleys split the land into countless fragmented sections, and the few areas flat enough to serve as battlefields were often covered by dense forests.

This kind of terrain was a nightmare for large-scale military maneuvers.

Roderick couldn’t help but miss the days when Raman was still alive, and this only fueled his growing hatred.

A member of the Sentalus family had fallen at the hands of beastkind. It was a deep stain on the family’s honor and a personal humiliation for Roderick.

He had stood there, helplessly watching as Raman was killed, and had no choice but to flee from those lowly beasts. 

The mere thought of it made his heart ache.

What troubled him, even more, was the mystery of Nina Lams suddenly awakening the ancestral power hidden within her bloodline.

It was said that long ago, the beastkind could indeed awaken the ancient power of their ancestors, granting them abilities on par with magic. Back then, even the great elven race had to feign respect, holding their noses to maintain a façade of equality with these filthy creatures, even fighting alongside them against the insect beings from the depths of the earth.

However, beastpeople were still beastpeople. Their inherent stupidity, savagery, cruelty, and warlike nature kept driving them to slaughter each other, while the elves carefully accumulated power, maintaining a delicate balance of “peace” and “friendship” with the various beastkind tribes.

It was said that during that era, many elves discreetly joined the wars between beastkind kingdoms, helping them kill powerful enemies, subtly maintaining the balance and hatred among the beastkind nations. By encouraging constant warfare, the elves steadily drained the beastkind of their strength.

With each internal conflict, the number of beastkind champions—those who possessed the power of their bloodlines—dwindled. After countless years, the beastkind warriors were reduced to a level the elves deemed satisfactory. Then, under the guidance of the Light Mother and her pantheon, the elves finally stepped forward to clean up the mess, ending the chaos and ignorance caused by these foolish beasts, and bringing lasting peace and civilization to the world.

This was how the Elven Empire came to be.

To preserve peace and prevent further conflict, the elves exterminated entire beastkind tribes that held bloodline powers and relentlessly hunted down any remaining seeds of unrest.

Perhaps, in the far corners of the world, there were still beastpeople with traces of that once-powerful bloodline, but their numbers and strength were no longer enough to threaten the peace of this world.

The Silvermoon Wolf Clan was no exception.

As the rulers of the central territories, the Sentalus family certainly knew the history of the Silvermoon Wolf Clan. 

Long ago, their bloodline powers had faded, leading to their exile into the barren lands of the Tecks Mountain Range. They managed to survive so close to the elves only because they were deemed no real threat—until one day, a young elf eager to make a name for himself needed land to claim, and the empire casually wiped out this so-called kingdom.

Nina Lams was nothing more than a joke to the Sentalus family. The Grand Duke had once said, in passing, that one day he’d have her in his bed, but no one had ever taken him seriously, nor had anyone seriously considered going to this backwater region of the Tecks Mountains to destroy them.

To the elves, they were just bandits—mountain folk refusing to pay taxes, nothing more.

Who could have imagined that their leniency and tolerance would nurture a future threat? That these ungrateful wretches would dare to provoke the Sentalus family?

Years of peace had dulled their vigilance, but who would have expected Nina Lams to awaken her ancestral bloodline?

She had to die!

This thought consumed Roderick.

If he couldn’t kill her in this battle, then the only option would be to return with the news and have the family mobilize an even greater force, sparing no effort to eliminate her and wipe out her clan entirely.

The blood of the Sentalus could only be repaid with oceans of blood.

The enemy had a necromancer, but they had never shown themselves, suggesting they weren’t that powerful. Last night, Raman and he had already wiped out most of the undead. The half-breed doggirl, who could summon weapons, wasn’t much of a threat as long as they stayed alert for her sneak attacks. As for the catgirl, all she did was hide and throw rocks from a distance—hardly a serious combatant. The only real threat was Nina Lams, and Roderick was sure she had been injured.

Roderick had already taken a healing potion, restoring him to full health. Such potions were highly valuable, even in the Imperial Capital, and their distribution was strictly controlled. He doubted these rebels had access to anything like it. However, just to be cautious, he remained in the center of the army.

His plan was to send two battalions to test the enemy’s strength. If they still posed a serious threat, he would retreat and report everything to his family as quickly as possible.

But if they had lost their ability to fight back, he certainly wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to cleanse his shame with their blood.

“Sir, we’re ready.” 

Raman’s attendants, fully armed, followed behind him. 

Their faces were grim with determination. They had decided to defend Raman’s honor with their lives, knowing that under imperial law, as his personal guards, surviving would mean their entire lineage would face extermination.

Though these half-elves had no direct descendants, they still had ties to their maternal clans and could not accept such a fate. The only way to atone for their failure was through blood.

“Go!” Roderick commanded. “Kill them all.”

The half-elves rode past the marching soldiers, their faces solemn as they made their way to the front of the formation. 

At that moment, the scouts scattered through the surrounding forest finally sent up a warning signal.

“Undead!”

“Form up!” Roderick immediately ordered. 

The two battalions from Sentalus began constructing makeshift fortifications on the spot, while the battalion from Noguti nervously spread out to cover the flanks, preparing for an attack from the sides. Meanwhile, the two battalions he had positioned at the vanguard reformed their ranks, raising their shields to prepare for the undead assault.

“Sir, they’re coming,” a lieutenant reported.

Shadows emerged from the forest, but no immediate attack followed. Roderick lifted his spyglass and saw that the figures were nothing but brittle skeletons and decayed corpses, most of them holding crude weapons—wooden spears and bone swords.

It seemed the necromancer had indeed exhausted his army and was resorting to using these weak creatures to fill in the gaps.

“Sir? What’s our move?”

“Advance,” Roderick said calmly.

It was impossible to outlast the undead in a waiting game. Soldiers would tire, lose focus, feel hunger, and fear, while these skeletons felt none of that. If the battle dragged on, the scales of victory would tip in the undead’s favor.

They had to crush them before the soldiers’ fighting spirit wore out.

“These are nothing but brittle skeletons!” he bellowed to his troops. “Sentalus, charge! Crush them underfoot!”