The sound from the horn echoed through the valley, the saugetiers waiting at the edge resumed their charge, sounding their warcries and holding their weapons high, they drew closer.

After giving the signal for the attack, Darius gave some instructions to two other Saugetiers, who immediately took off, with one heading down the valley and the other to the opposite side of the valley.

Down below, hundreds of Saugetiers were now attacking the Insekis with their weapons, completely surrounding them. Chris noticed that the Insekis were larger than what he had assumed, their exposed backs were almost as tall as the charging saugetiers.

The attacks were relentless from all sides, yet there was no change in the Inseki formation, with no visible breach. Saugetiers attacks on the Insekis were turning futile, the weapons were causing no damage, in fact, most of them kept breaking. The Insekis backs were stronger than he thought them to be.

This is when the odd formation of the Insekis suddenly made sense to him, the ones in the front were responsible for the defensive stance, while the ones behind them formed the offensive stance. The ones in the offensive used the mist to decimate the saugetiers while the ones in the defensive were easily holding the onslaught of hundreds of saugetiers without any visible damage. It was a perfect form of defense and offense.

The Saugetiers were getting visibly frustrated. Some even tried climbing the Insekis, but the Insekis on the offensive made it sure that none could enter. Their physical strength was visibly much more than the saugetiers, a single Inseki was dealing with at least two to three saugetiers at a time. Some who eventually did manage to break in were easily dealt with.

It felt like a stalemate again, with no side gaining any advantage, but the saugetiers still held the numbers with them.

This is when small disturbances started to occur all around the saugetiers formation, they were making space for something. At the end of each of these spaces, Saugetiers holding huge trees started to emerge, the trees looked like they were just cut.

Holding them they all charged simultaneously from their various points towards the Inseki defense.

BAMMMM!

The sound rang through the valley, but the impact, instead of the Inseki pushed the Saugetiers back.

((How strong are the Insekis?))

But the saugetiers weren't going to give up so easily they retreated and came back again with full force.

BAMMMM!

The same result followed, the hardbacks of the Insekis pushed the saugetiers back again, they repeated the process.

BAMMMM!

Though the Insekis were holding, the Saugetiers weren't planning to back down, it was only a matter of time, no matter how strong the Insekis were, he doubted they could sustain this nonstop attack. The Insekis were pinned down giving the Saugetiers all the time and opportunities to wear them down.

Maybe sensing victory was close, the Saugetiers' warcries started to get louder.

This is when the Insekis took everyone by surprise, while in the middle of this nonstop onslaught the Insekis on the offensive suddenly held their partners who were in the defensive and did a backward roll moving further inside their formations, switching their positions in an instant. The ones on the defense were now standing upright and the ones who were attacking had their armored backs exposed.

The saugetiers like Chris were taken aback by this sudden change.

Darius shouted, "It's a trap!". He rushed to the Saugetier nearby, grabbing the horn, unlike the one earlier, this time it was blown twice.

It was a call for retreat.

The Saugetiers were visibly confused, not only from the change in the Inseki formation but also from the sound of the horn they just heard.

That's when Chris understood why Darius blew that horn, the Inseki who were in the defensive were yet to use their magic. They had lured the saugetiers closer on the pretext that they had exhausted their magic.

Some Saugetiers maybe realising something was wrong, tried backing, but there was no way to retreat, they had overcommitted.

The white mist was back, this time trapping more saugetiers than before, the accumulation of the mist was even faster, hundreds were instantly trapped, turning the mist the darkest shade yet.

Chris was horrified and understood why the Insekis were considered so strong, even against such differences in numbers they were taking down the saugetiers in great numbers. It was not only their magic but also their organised warfare that was superior.

Those within the range of the mist barring a few got caught, while the rest just watched from outside the mist's range. Chris guessed by a rough estimate that at least half of the original three thousand saugetiers were dead.

-----

Chris kept watching the horrific scenes taking place under the valley, Inseki were still holding their red mist. The Suagetiers who he thought would have lost their morale by now, still kept circling the mist, and from the looks of it, they weren't planning to back off.

Something was also happening with the Insekis, one side of the saugetiers surrounding the Insekis were being forced to make way, and the mist covering that direction was turning white, this change in the color was now slowly spreading to the other parts.

((They are moving))

The mist followed their movement, turning whiter the farther away they moved from the original spot of the massacre. He turned his eyes towards the direction they were moving, he noticed a narrow path up ahead and knew why they were moving towards that direction, unlike the open valley, it didn't hold any open wide areas on the sides.

This meant that once inside it, the Insekis won't have to defend from all sides, reducing the numbers advantage the saugetiers held drastically, reaching it also meant that the raid would be technically over with the Saugetiers' defeat.

He looked at Darius, who for the first time since the battle began, had his eyes closed.

He was taken back when Darius suddenly spoke, "Do our gods know how much we must lose to gain anything, why did they bestow the strong with everything, leaving us with nothing."

Chris realised Darius was talking to himself.

He then looked at Ruthan and then back at Chris "The weak can only live at the whim of the strong, right?"

They both just looked at each other.

Darius then took out something that looked like a small skull and blew in it, instead of the echoing sound of the horn, it gave out a very sharp sound.

Confused, Chris looked at the valley, there was no change in the Saugetiers' behavior, he doubted if they even heard it. Then it struck him that it was not a call for the saugetiers, but for the second force that was part of the raid.

His suspicion became clear when he noticed movements around the valley, emerging from their hiding spots holding riders on their tops, were creatures he had a close encounter with not so long ago, a creature covered in scales as dark as night.

((Laubek Lizard?))

((No, they look different, are they smaller?))

That's when Chris remembered what Darius had told him about the Laub cavalry commanded by Adag, the Laubs were the tamed version of the wild Laubek Lizard, due to their taming they didn't grow as big as the wild ones, but were as ferocious and tough.

But unlike the single one he had encountered before, there were twenty laubs. The riders on top all had scales like Adag and wore the same green as his, but Adag wasn't among them, and just like the saugetiers their eyes were blood red.

((Are they using beast taming magic?))

The Laubs as per Chris' guess were more than forty feet long and on top of their size and rider, there was something odder about them, all the lizards' faces were covered by some contraption which covered their whole face including their eyes, yet they moved with clear direction.

The Laubs went into offense immediately, charging downhill, by the time they reached the bottom of the valley, the Saugetiers had cleared out the path for them. The Inseki probably realising what was coming slowed down, still maintaining the mist for their protection.

The twenty laubs placed themselves around the formation, after which to Chris' surprise the riders disembarked from them, and then ten laubs without a moment's pause charged straight into the mist.

((Did they cover their face to protect against the mist? How do they know where to go?))

The mist prevented visibility not revealing much, the Inseki's had stopped moving after the Laubs entered the mist.

He caught movement near the Inseki formation, one of the Laubs was being attacked, an Inseki soldier was riding its face, attacking the contraption.

((They are trying to remove it?))

More of such scuffles started to originate around the formation, the Insekis from the back were abandoning their attack formation and jumping on the Laubs' faces, the Inseki's were relentless, most of the action though was happening inside the mist. Somehow not a single Laub breached the formation, he assumed that the Insekis were attacking the laubs before they reached the mist.

This changed quickly when the remaining ten laubs charged in, two of them immediately breached, switching to attacking the Inseki from the inside using their large tails, the Inseki's now had to switch to their defensive stance on the inside where the lizards were attacking.

More Laubs started to break the formation, forcing more Inseki troops to attack them, they were huge compared to the Insekis, even ten Insekis weren't able to slow down a laub, he remembered Darius talking about the impenetrable scales of the Luabek lizard, for the Insekis who depended on their mist for an attack, there was not much they could do, the contraption made sure that the mist didn't enter the lizards.

More Insekis were forced to leave the offensive stance to attack the Laubs, this also meant that the mist was no longer being held as before, and as a result, it started to disperse, revealing with it what had happened inside, the Insekis had managed to take down two of the laubs, but the rest of them were now inside creating havoc, their riders still stood in their positions maintaining their blood-red eyes.

The Saugetiers watching this unfold were reaching a battle frenzy, they were ready to be cut loose.

Darius sensing this gave a nod, the sound of a single horn echoed again through the valley, and the remaining thousand five hundred Saugetiers resumed their charge again.

The Inseki formation broke, as resilient and organised the Inseki were, they couldn't take an attack from both sides. It quickly turned into a melee fight, the Insekis who still had some magic left kept using them, others used their physical prowess to attack, the saugetiers used their number to their advantage, the laubs were causing heavy damage all around.

The Insekis who held on for so long and were so close to making their escape were now truly doomed. Without their formation protecting them, scores of Insekis started to fall. They kept fighting the saugetiers and Laubs at the same time, even after realising that defeat was certain, they still continued to fight taking down saugetiers and the occasional laubs with them.

But it was evidently their last few moments of struggle, only less than a third of their original numbers remained standing, their fate bound to be the same as their fallen comrades. The battle was over.

Chris was appalled noticing that even in these last moments, they were still trying to protect the carriage.

((Leave the carriage and escape you fools, why is it so important to give your life for it?))

A valley oblivious to the struggles and conflicts of beastmen ended up staging a massacre of grand proportions, it could no more call itself ignorant to these struggles, the proof was the change in its appearance, no more the green and brown, it was now dyed in the color red.

((Why do I still keep watching this? Look away, look away.))

He was done and tired of watching the nonstop massacre, he didn't want to bear witness anymore, he didn't want to know how it will end. He had seen enough deaths for a lifetime.

While looking away, the sound of a horn echoed again through the valley, he looked at Darius, who was visibly confused just like him, they both looked at the saugetier who had blown the horn earlier, he raised his hand saying it was not him.

He turned to look at the valley, the horn was blowing again, making him realise that the sound was different.

And then he noticed movement coming from the direction the Insekis were trying to escape, horses started to emerge, carrying men in green robes, the first rider held a flag which fluttered in the wind revealing to Chris a crest he would recognise from anywhere.

He gasped.

(( The Adamah order were here)).