Chapter 114: The Battle of the Five Armies—Conclusion!

Leo was startled and looked up toward the valley. Seeing Fiza and the kobold guards gesticulating wildly, he shouted in frustration, “You little beast, what are you doing now?!” Unfortunately, the distance was too great for Fiza to hear him.

Fiza’s tactic of using a slingshot to hurl explosive barrels was a clever idea borrowed from the children of Riverbend. However, this had been done without Leo’s consent; everyone else was kept in the dark. Inspired by Leo, Fiza had been tinkering with all sorts of inventions day and night. As the chieftain of the kobolds, even if accidents happened, no tribesman dared to stop her.

Leo’s scalp tingled with unease. Once back, he resolved to properly discipline this increasingly erratic canine. Otherwise, one day an overloaded bomb might fall squarely on his head, and no tears would save him then.

Yet this explosion decisively shattered the hyena warriors’ morale. Though Leo’s troops were shaken, they largely knew it was Fiza’s handiwork. The opposing hyenas, however, were clueless. This terrifying attack, beyond their comprehension, was more dreadful than any ogre assault, causing many hyenas to flee the valley.

The surviving hyena leaders abandoned any hope of victory and began to worry about the survival of their race. After all, evolution of any species centers on survival, not self-destruction. The hyenas’ brutal bloodthirstiness had allowed them to thrive in the wilds, but when faced with an invincible foe, their ferocity vanished as swiftly as it had appeared.

With a long howl, the already demoralized hyenas abandoned their prey and fled madly from the valley. Since entering the valley, the boar warriors had been almost wiped out, and fewer than a hundred hyenas remained.

But the wildfolk were not about to let them escape so easily. The Great Falls wildfolk and the Riverbend infantry gave chase, while the Wolf Fang tribe’s hunters, who had long suffered from hyena predation and been driven from their ancestral lands, bore a blood feud. Dozens of Basaka longbowmen pursued and shot at the fleeing hyenas. Some wildfolk hunters, even after emptying their quivers, stood at the valley’s mouth trying to block their escape.

Several kobold guards burst from the woods, wielding crossbows and firing relentlessly. They feared the hyenas’ savage nature but were emboldened by sensing their terror. Though the hyenas fled swiftly and the Basaka longbowmen’s arrows grew scarce, half the hyenas still broke through the wildfolk and kobold blockade, disappearing into the wilderness.

Leo did not lead a pursuit. The Riverbend infantry, already slower than the wild tribes, carried burdens weighing sixty to seventy pounds collectively, making any chase impossible.

He ordered the Riverbend infantry to rest in place, tend to the wounded, and clear the battlefield. The plaster bandages he had developed were now practical and had been used by many villagers injured during construction or hunting, especially for fractures. Only the kobolds refused them, preferring to limp on a broken leg rather than be seen as burdensome by their kin.

If not for Fiza’s orders, tradition demanded that a kobold with a fracture who lost the ability to hunt or mine for an extended period be left to perish in the wilderness.

This battle was the largest any present had ever experienced. Over four hundred Riverbend allied troops faced nearly six hundred hyenas, filling the small valley with more than a thousand warriors. The war ended in a crushing defeat for the hyena coalition.

Though the hyenas were the wild’s most ruthless race—feared by all—they could not withstand over two millennia of military tactics, a millennium and a half of battle formations, and a thousand years of weaponry advancements. Their near-annihilation was inevitable.

The MVP of this encounter was once again the Basaka longbowmen. They fired at least ten heavy arrows per minute with precise, targeted shots rather than random volleys. Most carried two quivers totaling forty heavy arrows each but had emptied them before the battle’s end.

Before departing, Leo had anticipated this. He equipped the Basaka archers, who usually carried only one quiver, with extra pouches and stationed pack mules loaded with three thousand arrows at strategic points along the archer lines. It wasn’t a matter of unwillingness to carry more; the available arrows were all that the Great Falls, Wolf Fang, and Riverbend bowyers could produce.

However, some hyenas darted into the woods, preventing many archers from reaching the stored arrows. Their interference also distracted numerous Basaka archers from focusing on the frontline hyena forces, reducing the expected damage significantly.

Originally, Leo expected that with over a hundred Basaka archers and more than two hundred crossbowmen providing fire coverage, the six hundred hyenas wouldn’t even reach the Riverbend infantry’s front lines.

But beyond the loss of firepower, the hyenas’ vitality exceeded expectations. In a berserk frenzy, they were tougher than the boar warriors. Unless their heads or hearts were struck, even heavy arrows piercing through their bodies failed to stop their charge. This was not mere biology—it was akin to raging zombies.

For comparison, a human pierced by a heavy arrow as thick as a finger would barely be able to breathe, let alone continue fighting.

Unlike the boars, this battle-hardened hyena tribe equipped many of their warriors with round combat shields, and some leaders wore tattered, rusted iron armor. Though worn and of uncertain origin, these armors still provided some protection, shielding vital areas and forcing enemies to expend additional arrows.

Such are the realities of war; not everything unfolds as planned, and Leo could only strive to do his best.

The valley floor was littered with arrows. Each fallen hyena or boar bore at least three arrow wounds. The largest boar warriors and hyena brutes, subjected to concentrated fire, were riddled like porcupines.

Under the precise aim of the Basaka archers, the stronger the enemy, the faster their demise.

Second only to the Basaka archers in lethality were the kobold guards and refugee crossbowmen. Their numbers and relatively comfortable firing positions allowed at least two-thirds of them to keep shooting throughout the battle, aside from some kobold guards playing hide-and-seek with the hyenas.

However, the crossbows’ firing rate was more than three times slower than the yew longbows, and their bolts were roughly a third less powerful. Furthermore, the kobolds and refugees lacked the wildfolk’s archery skill, providing only suppressive fire.

When the ogres charged into the fray, crossbowmen’s firing zones shrank further to avoid friendly fire.

As for the Riverbend infantry, their casualties inflicted were roughly equal to those caused by fifteen ogres. Although they drew the attention of nearly half the enemy and engaged in close combat with over a hundred hyenas, they accounted for less than a tenth of total enemy losses—around sixty.

This was understandable; the hyenas were not fools and did not stand still to be stabbed by infantry.

Some hyena brutes dragged their entrails as they fled, fighting on for some time, further reducing infantry kills.

The infantry, bound by orders to maintain their shield wall, could not break formation to pursue or finish off fleeing foes. Rear ranks, aiding the front line’s shield wall and holding back enemy charges, threw javelins when possible but rarely engaged with blades.

Thus, the brutal and chaotic battle raged on amid the narrow valley, each side bearing the scars of fierce combat.