The lizardmen did not have any formation, simply charging ahead to engage the enemy, with no stratagem to speak of.
Leading the way were the five warrior captains from each of the tribes. For the commanders to be in the frontlines could be considered foolish in some ways. But they were the highest ranking combatants, so the morale of the lizardmen would plummet if they didn’t led from the front. Thanks to their effort, all the lizardmen were highly motivated.
Right behind them were the 89 ‘Razor Tail’ heavy armor warriors. Wearing leather armors and shields, this group had the highest defence among all the tribes.
With their shields raised, they formed a wall that was charging into the skeleton army.
An intense collision— the vanguards of the warriors and the warriors smashed into each other.
In that instant, countless bones flew everywhere as the lizardmen unit crashed a hole into the skeleton formation.
Angry roars accompanied the cracking sound of bones. There were occasional moans of pain, but the bone cracking sounds were overwhelmingly louder.
The lizardmen gained a staggering advantage in the first clash.
If it were a human army instead, the result would be reversed.
Because the skeletons were made up of bones, piercing weapons were ineffective and they had resistance towards slashing attacks too. Hence, for the human army with swords as their primary weapon, it would be difficult to deal effective damage against the skeletons.
Because of their blunt weapons such as maces and warhammers, the lizardmen completely gained the upper hand. The bane of skeletons were blunt weapons.
Whenever a lizardmen swung the weapon in their hand, the bones of the skeletons shattered easily. Even if they survived one hit, they would be crushed in the next attack. On the other hand, whenever the skeletons attacked with their rusty swords, it got deflected from the tough scaly skin of the lizardmen. Some of them were hurt, but no one suffered mortal wounds.
The very first clash.
The shattered bones of five hundred skeletons littered the wetlands just like that.
♦ ♦ ♦
The image reflected in the mirror stunned Cocytus.
It was just the initial clash, but the combat prowess of the lizardmen were beyond his imagination. Cocytus was an excellent warrior and could judge how good his opponent was to a certain extent. The skeletons were behind the lizardmen in single combat. But they should be able to make up for it with their numbers.
But it ended with such a result, what is happening? It even made Cocytus suspect that the lizardmen were strengthened by some unknown powers.
The ones that could defeat the lizardmen in combat would probably be the skeleton archers and riders.
As Cocytus was observing the situation, the skeletons were being crushed. The usefulness of the skeletons and zombies were reduced to tiring out the opponents.
In that case, the effective forces would be the remaining 300 undead beasts, 150 skeleton archers, and 550 skeleton riders. They were outnumbered instead.
Cocytus started calculating in his heart.
The undead were strong in battle, especially in a drawn out fight. The undead didn’t feel anything, and wouldn’t feel neither fear nor pain. They didn’t need rest or sleep.
The advantage these characteristics brought were evident with no need for any explanation.
For example, most creatures would fall from a powerful hit from a mace to its head. Even if they didn’t die, they would bleed profusely and feel pain. The one who got hit would lose all will to fight. Some warriors who were trained to resist pain might be able to stand their ground, but most people would lose the will to fight.
This was natural for living beings.
But what about the undead?
Smash its head? It would keep on attacking.
Break its arm? It would stab at you with its stump.
Take out its legs? It would crawl at you.
That’s right, as long as their negative life force remains, the undead would continue to fight. As long as the condition for its death was not met — which was cutting its head off for most undeads — it won’t lose its will to fight like humans. This meant that the undead was in a way, the perfect soldier.
In terms of individual strength, the lizardmen obviously had the upper hand. But that could change.
Cocytus’ raised his evaluation of the lizardmen by one level and acknowledged that they were not enemies that could be defeated easily. What he needed to do now was to turn this into a battle of attrition.
"How about retreating for now and observe the situation?”
“I believe this is a wise move, my lord.”
“Sending out the skeleton archers and riders might be a better option, master.”
“No, I think we should press on with the attack and sap them of their stamina, my liege.”
“How would waiting for them to tire help? If we can’t destroy the enemy’s base camp, they would be able to rest and recover right?”
“Indeed. Our foes had strengthened their defences with just a fragile wall. How about taking that village and routing them?”
After hearing the response from his underlings, Cocytus picked up a ‘Message’ scroll. He glanced at Entoma from the corner of his eyes and observed her expression.
Entoma seemed disinterested as she looked in the direction of the mirror. She was putting green biscuits she took from somewhere towards her chin. In the next instance, clear cracking sound could be heard. Her attitude seemed to be implying that she wasn’t involved. That was probably why her facial expression was blank.
— Wrong, that expressionless face was just a decoration.
Cocytus remembered her true identity and realized how stupid he was when he tried to read her expression.
She was a Familiar Eater. Even Cocytus’ friend, one of the ‘Evil Five’, Kyouhukou (Lord of Terror) said without hesitation that ‘she is the most scary one’. That was Entoma’s true identity.
Cocytus gave up trying to read Entoma’s thoughts from her face and used the scroll to issue the instruction to the commander.
♦ ♦ ♦
“Are they looking down on us?”
Zenberu mumbled. He wasn’t loud, but it was enough for everyone surveying the enemy from on top of the mud walls to hear.
“Their archers and riders are still held in reserve, I think they are underestimating us…”