Ah! The Sack!

He could not afford to be caught. If that happened, he would be finished, so…

“Sir, run! We—”

However, before the guard could finish speaking, cliff suddenly swung his sword, the blade shining with a golden light—a sword technique!

The blade slashed at the legs of two guards. Although both wore battle armor, the longsword imbued with sword technique easily tore through the armor, leaving a long, bone-deep wound on each of their legs.

“Ugh—ah!”

Both fell to the ground; seeing this, the remaining two guards were stunned.

“Sir, you!”

“You stay here and hold off those people! That’s an order!”

Cliff shouted, looking back at the pursuers—those ‘monsters’—and dared not linger any longer. He turned and ran wildly toward the wooden palisade.

He had to escape; he did not want to die here. He had to survive, even if it meant sacrificing the guards who had just saved his life to buy time.

The two guards ordered to stay were stunned, unable to decide what to do. But glancing at their wounded comrades writhing in pain, they gritted their teeth.

“Hold on!”

The two pulled up their companions. By now, all remaining human soldiers had been scattered or slaughtered—those who could run fled, and those who could not were killed by skeletons and blood slaves.

“Hey, if you take us with you, you won’t get away either.”

“Damn it, then let’s fight!”

So saying, the two guards shielded their wounded comrades behind them, facing the oncoming tide of skeletons and those frenzied ‘comrades.’ Their backs were drenched in cold sweat.

Knowing they could not escape, they decided to make a last, desperate stand. If this could buy time for Officer Cliff to escape back to camp, maybe he would return with reinforcements and avenge them.

This was what the guards thought, but another issue arose…

Why should they help that treacherous bastard? He only flattered his superiors, oppressed subordinates, and even now was sending them to die just to cover his own escape.

Just thinking of this, a strong sense of injustice rose in the guard’s heart. Looking at the oncoming monsters, he thought for a moment, then threw away his weapon.

Let them be chased, so what about revenge? That selfish man should not expect to escape, either.

“I surrender!”

One guard knelt, raising his hands. The other was first surprised, but then followed suit, discarding his weapon.

“Surrender!”

The two guards knelt, as did the two wounded, who also threw down their weapons and raised their hands.

Sometimes, this action could spare a life on the battlefield, but today their enemies were monsters from another race—would such uncivilized savages really spare them…?

“Rustle, rustle, rustle!”

The skeletons charged in. The guards, terrified, squeezed their eyes shut, convinced that death was certain and no point in resisting further.

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

There were hurried footsteps beside them—clearly the monsters had arrived—but why did the expected pain never come…?

A soldier, full of doubt, opened his eyes. To his surprise, the skeletons had moved past him, chasing those still trying to escape.

They had not attacked him!

The guard stood there dumbfounded, then began to laugh. Just then, a group of armored undead approached, clearly not ordinary ‘skeletons.’

“You will be handed to the Queen for judgment. Since you have chosen to surrender, you would be wise not to resist again.”

A skeleton spoke. In that instant, the guard stared, eyes wide with shock.

And there was a ‘Queen’ as well!

Was it this Queen they spoke of who controlled these powerful undead?

These doubts flashed through their minds, but now was not the time to consider such things. Now, all they cared about was survival.

“We…we won’t resist. We surrender.”

They escaped death, and this act also caught the eyes of other fleeing soldiers. Realizing defeat was certain and further escape meant only death, they too…

“I surrender!”

“Surrender!”

“Don’t kill me—I surrender!”

One by one, the human soldiers threw down their weapons, turned around, and knelt before the skeletons, who ignored them and continued chasing the ones still fleeing.

In a short time, the dozen or so remaining human soldiers all surrendered. Serea won a complete victory.

But behind the crowd of surrendering soldiers was a very incongruous figure—Cliff, who had already climbed over the wooden palisade. In his desperate escape, he had discarded his armor.

Clumsily flipping over the palisade, he landed heavily on the ground outside.

Quickly getting up, cliff gazed at the dense jungle ahead. Though his heart was full of fear, he knew he had to hide in the jungle as soon as possible.

As long as he hid in the deep woods, the riders’ pursuit would be hampered and he might stand a chance of escape.

“Damned outsiders—you just wait! I’ll have my revenge. And those fools who surrendered to those outsiders—how shameful, for soldiers of the mighty Ailera Empire!”

Cliff cursed inwardly. His subordinates had failed to buy him extra time, so he had to move even faster!

“Heh, look at what we’ve caught.”

Suddenly, a gruff male voice sounded from ahead. Hearing it, cliff immediately stopped in his tracks.

“Who’s there?”

The speaker made no effort to hide, calmly appearing in Cliff’s view. It was a werewolf riding a giant silver-furred direwolf.

“Werewolf!”

The moment he saw Aruka, cliff instinctively associated him with those undead and elves, for these despicable outsiders loved nothing more than banding together into so-called ‘tribes.’

Run!

Right now, he had to flee—he must not let himself be caught.

He turned and bolted toward another part of the jungle. Aruka did not pursue, for someone else now blocked Cliff’s path.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Auna rode Becca forward at leisure. Seeing this path blocked, cliff tried to turn back, but more and more werewolves riding direwolves appeared, surrounding him in a ring.

“You… You all, I advise you to let me go at once, or the Empire’s soldiers—”

“The Empire’s soldiers you speak of, are they the fools wandering the jungle in the middle of the night?”

Auna spoke. Blood still stained the greatsword on her back—from the human patrol squads gathering here.

“!!!”

Cliff was stunned. Seeing the sets of black battle armor and standard weapons collected from the direwolves, cliff knew his last hope was gone; the other squads were…

Thud!

Cliff dropped to his knees, begging.

“No, don’t kill me. I am an officer of the Ailera Empire—killing me won’t do you any good.”

“How spineless. But it saves us the trouble.”

Auna said, her lips curling into a cold smile, then a wolf rider rushed forward with a sack and swiftly bagged Cliff.

Ah! The sack!

“No—No!”

Everything went dark for Cliff. In the end, he could not escape.

(To be continued…)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep