Michael and his army began to move after Blaire’s arrived with her report.
The Blood-eyed Minotaur had initiated a massacre in the nearby Gem Jaguar hideout – just like Michael and his people had predicted.
The Gem Jaguar hideout was the only gathering place for Gem Jaguars. Hundreds of them had found a habitat in the darkest parts of the Untamed Jungle’s outer area because of the evolved Horned Gem Jaguar.
According to their research, the Horned Gem Jaguar was a female with the ability to pull the Gem Jaguars together and create synergy between them. That was also one of the reasons why Michael and his Army always encountered more than one Gem Jaguar in the Untamed Jungle.
The Horned Gem Jaguar was thrice as big as ordinary Gem Jaguars, and she was much stronger than the Sabertooth Wolf pack, which was no surprise.
The Blood-eyed Minotaur picked stronger monster packs as its opponents with every attack, which led to fiercer attacks and more wounds all over the Minotaur’s body. However, it didn’t seem to mind the pain caused by the various wounds that had yet to fully heal. That was stated in Blaire’s report.
Michael spent lots of time reading through the reports Blaire and her people provided about the Blood-eyed Minotaur and its movements. He knew that it was injured, its equipment was badly damaged, and the battle-axe’s blade was duller than before, but that was not something he could be happy about.
On the contrary, the Minotaur was a huge problem.
It had grown stronger in the past few days. The Blood-eyed Minotaur had adjusted to fighting large groups of opponents and utilizing the Untamed Jungle’s freaky environment to its benefit.
Fortunately, nobody was better at utilizing the Untamed Jungle than the Lord of the Untamed Jungle, and his loyal subjects, who used the Untamed Jungle to their advantage all day.
Michael led his people through the Untamed Jungle straight to the Horned Gem Jaguar.
He gave Tiara command of the close combat unit and ascended the canopy bridge high up in the air with the long-range units.
The Aero Crossbowmen, Crossbowmen, Archers, the Earth Elemental Mage, and the Water Elemental Mage were better off high up in the canopy bridge rather than standing on the ground where the Blood-eyed Minotaur could charge at them and snap their necks easily.
Icarus, and Iglisis, the Demi-Human from the Typhoon Eaglefolk, were also high up in the trees, perched on the branches. They didn’t use the canopy bridge, but that was not necessary. In fact, the canopy bridges would restrict their movements later.
The Warriors, Spearmen, Cavalry Riders, Vanguards, Assassins, and others made their way through the thicket of the Untamed Jungle with the help of the Heavy Armored Elephant.
It paved the way through the Untamed Jungle with its humongous body.
The Heavy Armored Elephant didn’t like fighting. However, it was one of the crucial members of today’s battle strategy because of its heavy weight and thick gray skin, which was covered in a second layer of protection. The blacksmiths had toiled endlessly for the last few days, creating a thick and heavy metal armor for the Heavy Armored Elephant.
The heavy metal armor didn’t look great but it would certainly fulfill its goal.
“How far along is their fight?” Michael asked Iglisis as the Demi-Human from the Typhoon Eaglefolk flew past him.
Iglisis shot through the canopy of trees and approached their final destination while remaining undiscovered by everyone. A minute after he departed, Iglisis returned. His face was drained of all its color.
“The battle is already over? The Minotaur won?” Michael asked even though Iglisis’ face was enough to answer his questions.
Iglisis nodded his head heavily and responded slowly, “The…the Minotaur sustained a few injuries…but it won. It killed every single Gem Jaguar already!”
Michael didn’t expect the Minotaur to be that fast, but it didn’t change anything in their plan.
He turned to his right to look down at the ground where Tiara was already waiting for him. Everyone was in position and ready to move.
“Let our Speedster go!” Michael said loud enough for the people down below to hear.
Tiara nodded, and their little Speedster, the Demi-human from the Speedster Rabbitfolk began to move.
She shot past the Heavy Armored Elephant, squeezed through the thicket, and accelerated. She was not at the 1st Tier, but her speed rivaled Tiara’s. However, that was not the sole reason why they sent the Speedster Demi-Human out.
Members of the Speedster Rabbitfolk reached an even greater speed in moments of fear and desperation. The hormones they released allowed their body to go past their limits. But on the flip side, the hormones they released attracted nearby monsters as well. Some would fall into a state of rage, while others would be overwhelmed by sudden curiosity. One way or another, most monsters were affected by the Speedster Rabbitfolk’s hormones, and they would follow the trail left behind by the hormones.
They were the perfect bait!
Seconds after the Speedster was released into the densely grown habitat of the Horned Gem Jaguar, a terrifying roar reverberated through the surrounding area. The Minotaur took the bait!
The ground began to tremble wildly as the Blood-eyed Minotaur charged behind the Speedster. Meanwhile, Michael and the others began to move.
In the next ten seconds, everyone got into position. The close combat group entered Formation A, with three different types of potions in their empty hands, while the long-range group spread across the canopy bridge with two potions in their hands.
The Master Alchemist prepared various potions to temporarily enhance everyone’s strength, stamina, and pain resistance to a certain extent. The potions would have slight side effects once the effect wore off, but that was a small sacrifice in exchange for a boost in strength, stamina, and a certain degree of immunity to physical pain.
‘I hope I’ll summon a Poison Master soon,’ Michael thought when he retrieved a bunch of potions from his War Rune.
The Master Alchemist had never been interested in concocting poison. Thus, Michael and the others weren’t in possession of highly potent venom to use against their enemies. The paralysis venom in Michael’s possession was strong, but it wouldn’t work against a monster such as the Blood-eyed Minotaur. It was partially resistant to venom.
Fortunately, the Master Alchemist was a sly bastard. He had a particular potion that was perfect for the given situation. It was expensive to produce, which was also why they had only a single potion of it, but that was more than enough to fight the Blood-eyed Minotaur and use it at the very end as a trump card.
Now that everybody was in position, Michael summoned the Siltang Bow. He conjured the strongest arrow using the energy stored in the bow frame and coated the entire arrow with the tincture prepared by the Master Alchemist.
Once the arrow was fully coated, Michael stored the half-empty glass vial back in the War Rune. He activated Lesser Enhancement and Eagle Eyes simultaneously, and pulled back the bowstring while calling out loudly, “Ready!”
As his words resounded across the canopy bridge, everyone else moved as well. They pulled their bowstrings back, readied their crossbows, and manifested their elemental spells while waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack.
The commotion on the ground intensified and a terrifying roar rang through the Untamed Jungle as the Minotaur barged through the densely grown thicket, slashing at the desperately running Speedster.
But before the Blood-eyed Minotaur’s battle axe could slice through the Speedster’s frail body, something heavy smashed into the Minotaur’s side with a weight of close to 13 tons.
The impact was hard and unexpected, and the Blood-eyed Minotaur couldn’t react in time. It was flung to the side as it desperately tried to regain its balance but was unable to do anything.
Meanwhile, the Heavy Armored Elephant found itself in a state of shock. Its sharp tusks weren’t strong enough to pierce the Blood-Eyed Minotaur’s hide!
Plan A was thus rendered useless.
The Heavy Armored Elephant reacted quickly. It used its heavy weight to smash the Minotaur against the nearest tree before making space for everyone else to attack.
Even if the Heavy Armored Elephant looked terrifying with its humongous size and heavy weight, the monster’s mission was to protect and distract rather than attack.
After losing its momentum, and being smacked upon the nearest tree trunk, the Blood-Eyed Minotaur required a second to regain its senses.
It had been fueled with uncontrollable anger seeing the tiny Demi-Human and had solely focused on it, forgetting to keep a lookout for other unexpected attacks. Hence, the Minotaur simply charged behind it for a few seconds until it had nearly caught up with the little bastard Demi-Human.
In the next second, they charged through the thicket, only to be faced with the assault of a Heavy Armored Elephant and the appearance of dozens of tiny bastards unveiling themselves in front of it.
The Blood-eyed Minotaur’s gaze moved across the tiny bastards standing behind the Heavy Armored Elephant. It roared out again, causing some of the human warriors to step back subconsciously.
They were struck by fear and couldn’t stop themselves from shivering anymore.
Staring at the Blood-eyed Minotaur, they could only feel its uncontrollable desire to tear apart every single one of them.
The warriors were frozen in place. None of them was capable of resisting the fear that had surfaced from the deepest parts of their subconscious.
The Blood-eyed Minotaur was intelligent enough to notice this. It sensed the weak presence of the tiny bastards in front of it and made a sound that resembled a sneer.
These weaklings wanted to assassinate it? That had to be a joke!
The battle against the Horned Gem Jaguar might have drained its stamina rapidly, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t obliterate these tiny bastards.
They should have stayed home and practiced a bit more, instead of throwing themselves at a living inferno.
The Blood-eyed Minotaur was just about to get up from the ground when a loud and confident voice reverberated through the vicinity.
“Charge!!!”
A moment later, dozens of arrows and bolts rained down from the canopy above the Minotaur.
Their Lord had spoken.
It was time for war!