msmithbooks Chapter 249 249: What a vicious woman!
Chapter 249 249: What a vicious woman!
The horizon over the McClain region had barely begun to settle from the initial tremors when a new, more terrifying sound began to drown out the whistling wind.
From the dense, dark thickets of the forests that lay directly behind the McClain scouts, a cacophony of snapping branches and gutteral snarls erupted with violent intensity.
The shadows beneath the canopy seemed to come alive, vomiting forth a literal tide of fur, scale, and claw as countless beasts and monsters surged out into the open air.
Their eyes were not the clear, predatory yellow of natural hunters, but were instead bloodshot. A sign of a bloodlust so unnatural and forced that it bordered on insanity.
The sheer weight of their collective killing intent felt like a physical blow, billowing up toward the heavens and chilling the hearts of every man standing on that dusty border.
The monsters did not hesitate for a single heartbeat; the moment their bloodshot eyes locked onto the living figures in the distance, their gazes turned even more predatory.
It didn't matter to the charging horde whether the men wore the colors of the McClain region or the insignias of the Montgomery region.
To the frenzied creatures, every human present was merely an obstacle to be shredded to pieces.
With a collective roar that shook the very atmosphere, the beast tide accelerated, their heavy paws and feet tearing up the grassy earth as they closed the gap with terrifying speed.
"Run!!! It's a beast tide! God help us, run for your lives!" one of the McClain soldiers hollered, his voice cracking under the weight of pure, unadulterated terror.
He didn't even stop to retrieve his dropped spear, turning on his heel and sprinting toward the horizon, like a frightened man who had seen his own grave opening before him.
"F*ck, just how is this even possible?!" another soldier cursed, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps as he struggled to keep pace with his fleeing comrades.
He looked over his shoulder in disbelief, unable to wrap his mind around the nightmare unfolding behind them.
This particular stretch of land was a frequented battlefield, a place where high-level military patrols and constant skirmishes usually kept the local wildlife far at bay.
There was no logical reason for such a concentrated number of monsters to be nesting here, let alone emerging in such an organized wave of destruction.
What truly sent a shiver of ice down his spine, however, was the direction of the attack. The beasts weren't coming from the wild, untamed mountains or the neutral wastes; they were pouring out from the deeper reaches of the McClain regions.
That was the very heart of their own territory, the area where the bulk of the McClain border forces were supposed to be stationed in ironclad defensive lines.
A wave of bone-deep dread overwhelmed the soldier as a sickening thought took root in his mind, if these monsters were coming from behind them, did that mean the legions meant to protect this area of the border, had already been wiped out?
The thought of his brothers-in-arms being slaughtered in silence while he stood watch at the border made his stomach churn with a mixture of grief and horror.
In the face of such an overwhelming and mindless catastrophe, the long-standing animosity between the two rival factions vanished in an instant.
The Montgomery and McClain soldiers, who only moments ago had been eyeing each other with murderous intent across the border line, now fled side by side in a frantic bid for survival.
Alas, as the distance between the humans and the monsters continued to shrink, it became painfully clear that outrunning the nightmare was simply impossible!
The beasts were faster, stronger, and driven by a strange force that caused them to pay no heed to their own dwindling stamina.
It wasn't long before the heaviest and swiftest of the predators caught up to the stragglers of the fleeing groups.
The men at the back, realizing they were cornered, tried to wheel around and put up a final, desperate defense, raising their shields and swinging their swords in wide, panicked arcs.
Their efforts were tragically futile; for they were brutally decimated within seconds, ripped apart by the charging monsters.
Flesh and entrails flew into the air in a gruesome display of carnage, the grass turning slick and red beneath the trampling feet of the following wave.
One by one, the fleeing men were overtaken, their screams of agony cut short by the snapping of bone and the tearing of sinew.
The massacre was horrid, leaving the border path littered with the mangled remains of what had once been a proud patrol group.
When there were finally no more humans left in sight and the immediate area had been cleared of all life, the beasts did not linger to feast on the fallen. Instead, as if responding to an invisible signal or a fading enchantment, they all stopped in their tracks and let out a series of final, furious roars that echoed across the empty plains.
Without another glance at the destruction they had wrought, the entire horde turned as one and retreated back into the dark embrace of the forest, vanishing into the trees as quickly and mysteriously as they had appeared.
The silence that followed the massacre lasted for several hours, broken only by the settling of dust and the occasional caw of a scavenger bird circling above the ruins, some landing to feast on the ruined corpses.
However, the stillness was eventually interrupted by an organized, metallic thrumming that grew louder with every passing minute.
It was the unmistakable sound of disciplined marching, that signaled the arrival of a true military force.
From within the Montgomery region, emerging like a slow-moving river of steel, came an army numbering in the thousands.
Their polished armor reflecting the afternoon light, and the flag bearers at the head of the column held their poles high, the Montgomery emblem fluttering proudly in the breeze as they crossed the border.
At the absolute forefront of this marching juggernaut rode a figure clad in ornate, blackened armor, his posture radiating an arrogant look of triumph.