Chapter 246: The Cat-and-Mouse Game (Part 5)

After fending off Wu Qingsong’s latest harassment attack, the elf didn’t return as he had before. Instead, he circled the perimeter of the encirclement. He even stopped at a few points before finally returning to the cliff. Shortly afterward, Wu Qingsong sent another undead force to harass the regiment they had attacked earlier in the morning. This time, however, the soldiers in the camp fought fiercely and didn’t send out any distress signals.

In response, Wu Qingsong dispatched more ghouls and annihilated them completely.

“Are they just giving up?” 

He was a bit surprised by this development. What exactly were those elves thinking?

“Wu!” Daryl called out. He was startled and somewhat panicked, as he rode a zombie war wolf down the hillside.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s bad!” Daryl anxiously reported.

Flags with unknown meanings had been raised on the cliff above. After the elf had paused there, the regiment Daryl had been scouting, the one they planned to target next, suddenly began to organize and leave the camp. However, instead of following the retreating undead as Wu Qingsong had expected, they marched in the opposite direction—heading deeper into the encirclement.

Another regiment stationed on a distant high ground, barely visible from their current ridge, also began to move. Their destination was likewise toward the inner part of the encirclement.

This forced him to make the worst assumption: the troops stationed beyond their line of sight had likely made the same move.

There was only one answer. They had decided to strike against the remnants of the Silvermoon Wolf Clan inside the encirclement under the cover of night.

“Those guys… things were never going to be that easy,” Wu Qingsong sighed softly.

His original plan was to provoke these two elven commanders into a relentless chase, drawing them away from the encirclement and giving Nina and the Silvermoon Wolf Clan a chance to escape.

If luck had been on his side and the enemy’s response would have been slow, he might have been able to weaken them bit by bit in this mountainous terrain—dragging them from strong to weak, until he could finally devour them entirely.

But the elves had wised up within a day, or rather, within half a day. They stopped playing along with his rhythm and instead took decisive action. They turned the tables, forcing him to follow their lead.

If he stuck to his original strategy, it wouldn’t affect him personally, but the wolfpeople trapped in the encirclement would face devastating losses—potentially even annihilation. Given this grim reality, he had no choice but to change his approach.

After all, the only reason he had stayed here was to save them all, if possible.

“Wu?! What do we do now?” Daryl blurted out, panic creeping into his voice. “The path’s clear—should I go tell them to escape this way?”

“Don’t panic. The more tense things get, the more we need to stay calm,” Wu Qingsong said. 

He then pulled out the map, now so heavily marked that it looked almost illegible.

Was this really a gap in the encirclement?

Had the elves intentionally left this area unguarded? Were they hoping the wolfpeople would try to sneak through here, either to regroup with the rest of the Silvermoon Wolf Clan or to have Nina and the others attempt an escape?

No matter how he looked at it, something about this situation felt off.

Was this where they planned to stage the final confrontation?

Wu Qingsong glanced toward the cliff. If that elf rode his eagle over, it would take less than ten minutes to reach this spot.

With his magic, the elf could easily—and safely—from high above, incinerate any wolfpeople trying to pass through.

“Ling! You’ll go with Daryl to find Nina!” Wu Qingsong decided quickly.

Daryl was ready to leave immediately, but Ling hesitated and asked, “And then?”

“Have her bring everyone here first,” Wu Qingsong replied. “They need to break contact with the surrounding troops. I’ll stay here and make preparations. I’ll send part of the undead to attack the nearby armies. I’ll create a distraction so they can escape.”

***

Raman stood at the edge of the cliff. Not far from him, an attendant was carefully grooming the giant eagle’s feathers and massaging its wings.

The eagle seemed quite pleased with the attention, perched on the wooden frame with its eyes closed, dozing off.

On a large table nearby, a map was laid out flat. The adjutants were busy marking the latest battle developments and the positions of various squads and known enemy forces using different colored pieces, based on signal flares and flag communications.

“Lord Roderick has reached the base of the cliff,” one of the adjutants cautiously reported.

Raman nodded, motioning for him to step aside, while he squinted at the vast forest below and glanced at the pieces on the map in front of him.

Now that he had calmed down, he quickly realized he had made a mistake.

While being led around by that necromancer mage, he had wasted an entire day, and by the time the order to mobilize had been issued, it was already nearing dusk.

Though Roderick’s troops were not afraid of night combat, the undead would undoubtedly gain a greater advantage under the cover of darkness, and in the confusion of a nighttime battle, the wolfkind would find it much easier to slip away.

Yet, that undead mage had already wiped out three full squads and crippled two more in such a short time. If they didn’t act tonight and allowed him to keep using the darkness to his advantage, who knew how many more squads might be destroyed? 

If that happened, the encirclement would become a joke.

The outcome was to be decided tonight.

Raman downed the wine in his cup and then handed it back to the attendant behind him, signaling that he no longer needed it.

Roderick would be responsible for commanding the western front, leading the intact regiments to keep constant pressure on the wolfkind, locking them in so they couldn’t break away. Then, at the critical moment, he would join the battle to secure the victory.

As for Raman, he would stay here, waiting for the undead mage and his minions to appear.

Soldier against soldier, king against king—just like a game of chess.

The enemy might have amassed a large number of undead, but in this game, pawns were always just pawns.

Suddenly, in the darkness, several red flares shot up one after another in different locations, signaling the start of battles and relaying updates.

“The Sirisio Guard is engaging the enemy!”

“Noguti Second Regiment has engaged!”

“Elyar First Regiment is in combat!”

“Dwight Regiment is engaged!”

“Bowton Regiment is also engaged!”

The adjutants immediately sprang into action, marking the latest battle developments on the map once again.

“Lord Raman! Noguti First Regiment has sent a direct request for reinforcements!”

“Sirisio Guard is also requesting backup!”

Green flares began rising from the western side, meaning the enemy had been repelled. But in the east, three purple flares shot up, signaling that the situation had become critical.

“Still on the eastern front?” Raman sneered. 

As long as his opponent stopped playing hide-and-seek, no amount of these slow-moving corpses could frighten him.

He blew his bone whistle, and the giant eagle on the wooden perch stretched its neck, flapped its wings, and got ready.

“Let’s go,” Raman said calmly.