"Kill!"
The command tore through the air, the word echoing across the barren hill like a death knell. The battleground was a brutal maelstrom—dozens of Gu Masters locked in ferocious combat with a flood of wind wolves.
The clash had raged for fifteen minutes. Blood, fur, and the smell of iron filled the air.
"These damned wolves!" Ge Guang, the leader of the Ge Tribe, hissed, his face twisted with rage. He swung his sabre with ruthless precision, decapitating one of the beasts.
But as the wolf's head fell, the sabre snapped like a twig—its blade shattered, riddled with deep, gnawing holes.
A chilling howl echoed. Without warning, a wind wolf leapt from the shadows, its jaws widening to tear into Ge Guang's flesh.
"Young tribe leader, watch out! Spiral Water Arrow!" A desperate shout came from behind.
In one fluid motion, Ge Guang bent low, offering himself to the wolf's deadly fangs, knowing his next move. A spinning blue arrow of water shot from behind him, surging forward with deadly intent. It struck the wolf in mid-air, driving the creature into the dirt with a brutal, finality.
The tribe leader took the opening, his hand seizing his hump wolf's reins, yanking it back towards their defensive line, narrowly avoiding the wolves' encroaching fangs.
Sabre Gu!
Ge Guang's palms pressed together. The last ounce of his primeval essence surged into his hands, flowing into the sabre mark branded into his flesh.
Whoosh!
In an instant, a new blade materialized, gleaming with a razor's edge. Ge Guang gripped it, his knuckles white with tension. His voice rumbled through the chaos. "Die!"
The sabre tore through the air like a comet, slicing a wolf in two. Blood sprayed in all directions, but it was a small victory—a momentary triumph. The wolves were endless, their numbers overwhelming.
"Damn it! My primeval essence is running dry!"
"We're surrounded! There's over four thousand of them!" The shout echoed, desperation creeping into every voice. "The eastern line's the weakest, we can break through there!"
Ge Guang's eyes flashed with cold fury. "No. The eastern side is a trap. The wind wolf king lies in wait there. If we go in, we're walking right into its jaws."
A beat of silence followed, filled with palpable fear.
"What do we do then, young tribe leader?"
Ge Guang gritted his teeth, his resolve hardening like steel. "We break through the east. There's no other way."
"But Lady Ge Yao… if we retreat without her—"
"Enough!" Ge Guang snapped, voice harsh, unforgiving. "Ge Yao chose her fate when she fled, abandoning our tribe for her own selfish reasons. We don't die for her. We survive. Break through! Now!"
Orders rang out like a drumbeat as the tribe fell into line. Slaves—expendable souls—were left behind. Their lives would be the price to buy the Ge tribe's escape.
The sound of steel meeting flesh, of death tearing through the air, was relentless. Ge Guang, riding at the front, swung his sabre with unrelenting fury, cutting down anything in his path. His eyes were aflame, his pulse a steady thrum of defiance.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" he roared, his voice swallowed by the battle's rage.
But then—a sudden whoosh! A massive, three-leaf wind blade tore through the air.
"Master!" A loyal warrior shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. He surged forward, his body taking the brunt of the blow.
His sacrifice was swift and brutal. The wind blade cleaved him in two, his blood staining the earth. But it slowed, just enough to spare Ge Guang.
The blade cut through the air, now only two-leaf. It surged toward Ge Guang.
Ge Guang raised his sabre, but it shattered with an explosion of force. The impact sent him sprawling from his mount, blood spilling from his mouth as he hit the dirt hard.
"Young tribe leader!" His warriors cried, rushing to his side, but their efforts were in vain. The wind wolves closed in again, trapping them in a tightening noose.
Then, from the darkness, it appeared.
The Wind Wolf King—The Thousand Beast King.
It moved through its pack like a force of nature. Its massive body was like a living fortress, dark green fur rippling as it approached. Its eyes glowed like emerald flames, radiating a chilling, primal power. The very air around it hummed with a menacing presence, and Ge Guang felt his heart seize.
Behind them, the slaves who had been left to die were already slaughtered. Wind wolves swarmed over their remains, indifferent to their lives.
The Gu Masters were exhausted. Their primeval essence spent. The Wolf King's presence sent a tremor through the warriors—there was no hope left.
One of the men tugged Ge Guang's arm, trying to pull him back, but Ge Guang stood firm, his body battered and bloodied. His voice cracked with defiance, a final rallying cry.
"What are we afraid of? I may have no essence left, but I still have my hands, my legs, my teeth!" He bellowed, eyes burning with unyielding resolve. "We're Ge Tribe warriors! We fight with our blood. We fight with our lives! We prove our strength to these beasts!"
A fire ignited in his followers' hearts. Their fear melted away, replaced by a single, burning desire—to fight to the death.
For Ge Guang. For their tribe.
The storm of battle was far from over. But now, the winds of war carried something else—a tide of unstoppable defiance.
Hehehe... Hehehe... Hehehe...
A chilling, unnatural laughter reverberated through the battlefield, its eerie cadence crawling under the skin of every living soul, freezing them in place. It was a sound so twisted, so inhuman, that it seemed to tear at the very fabric of reality itself. The Ge Tribe's warriors and the wind wolves alike could only shudder as the air grew heavier with dread.
A single word thundered through the chaos, a command that twisted the battlefield itself:
"Eat."