Chapter 349: Persuading an Enemy to Surrender

My command was as simple as it was direct. I wasn’t too certain if the golems could understand the true meaning behind my words, but as the command was given, they charged forward as ordered. Their weight was frightening, to say the least. For every step they took, the earth itself would groan. Rocks would fly off like an explosion had gone off at the site of their footsteps. And as the cacophony of rubble and booming footsteps echoed across the battlefield, it wasn’t long before every creature’s attention was attracted over to us.

“Blast it! What are you doing here again!” Warwraith had a face with the words frustration and anger written all over. “Why can’t you just watch quietly from over there? Do you really think we Warhorses are afraid of you?!”

Because of the booming footsteps of the golems, Warwraith had already sensed our presence the moment we arrived. Yet never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that we would be so shameless as to harass him so soon after the previous beating.

With a horde of golems charging ever closer, Warwraith didn’t dare to act rashly, merely holding position for now. He had definitely heard my command just now, so he knew that as long as he stood there, he wouldn’t be attacked.

He was right on that front. Not long after, the golems surrounded him but never attacked him. Based on this alone, I could at least take heart that their intelligence wasn’t horrifically low.

“If I were you right now, I wouldn’t make any sudden moves.”

Seeing him so obedient in his circle of golems, I couldn’t but smile a little as I brought my forces forward. As we got closer, that old horse’s already black face got even blacker. His furious shaking was no better proof of how angry he was right now. At the same time, it was a sign of his fear.

“What do you even want?!”

Warwraith yelled at me. As he was right now, there was no way for him to express his disquiet other than shouting. Yet as the saying went, dogs who bite don’t bark. His shouting merely showed that he was all bark and no bite.

“Nothing at all, really. So you better not do anything unnecessary either. Just watch quietly from there.”

“There’s no benefit for both of us if they keep fighting like this.”

“I’m fine with that. I’ll just take it as I’m watching a show.”

“… b*stard!” In a war of words, there really was no way Warwraith would ever win -just look at how he lost after two sentences.

Even though I didn’t say it, he knew exactly what I wanted. After a brief pause, he finally swallowed this bitter pill through gritted teeth.

Eyes still spewing hate, the old horse yelled in the direction of the battlefield, “Stop fighting! I want all of you back here now!”

Even though Jeerah was able to disrupt the Warhorses with her Adept Psychic Enthrallment, the battle couldn’t be said to be in their favor. At the end of the day, the Devils were simply too weak to fight against the Warhorses. Her participation did allow them to counterattack somewhat, but their level difference wasn’t something that could be overcome so easily.

If one was to take that Large Imp who fought a Warhorse to death as an example, while he might have won, he had to pay an unbearable price for that victory. Barring some form of main character plot armor, any similar victory would be a pyrrhic one as well.

In just five short minutes, half the Devils were either dead or injured. In contrast, the Warhorses merely suffered a dozen over losses. These losses were mostly restricted to Three-stars as well. Should the battle continue, their defeat was inevitable even without Warwraith’s participation.

Warwraith knew of my true intentions. He also knew that even if they won, he wouldn’t gain a single benefit -because my fist was bigger than his.

Since he clearly had no way of winning, there wasn’t much point to his resistance either. At the very least, this way there was a chance that they wouldn’t be massacred.

With Warwraith’s shout, both sides slowly stopped fighting. The Devils retreated back to Jeerah’s rock as per her orders, instinctively forming a layered defense ring around her.

Warwraith glared at me then. He wanted to say something but he held it in; not like I couldn’t tell what he was trying to say from his bulging eyes. He clearly wanted to curse at me.

‘Ah… the world is really such a strange place. I still remember the first time I met him too. Back then, he forced me to fight those Demonic Fire Igneous Giants… Well, looks like the roles have been reversed now. As the saying goes, don’t bully a kid just because he’s poor. A river that flows east for thirty years, flows west the next.

“Pack up… we’re leaving…”

When he said pack up, what he really meant was to gather the corpses of their fallen. As Warwraith silently watched Warhorse after Warhorse corpse got dragged before him, his mood sank further.

‘Maybe I should just stay away from him for now. Judging by his foul mood, he might just snap and attack me if I provoke him more.’

In actuality, I wasn’t the least bit afraid of him since my golems could easily teach him a lesson in how to be a proper horse. Yet what good would that do for me? None. In fact, it was detrimental to my cause.

My end goal was to gather troops by conquering Sable Radiance. These horses were a force to be reckoned with, a force that I could easily turn into my cavalry unit. Thus, my plan had always been to subjugate not to decimate.

There were a multitude of ways to declare war, ones that didn’t require me killing off their important members. In other words, ways that didn’t get in the way of me gathering more troops afterwards.

Humiliating him but not killing him was certainly an option. But there was a possibility that I could cross his limits, turning him into a diehard rival even if their whole race surrendered. At the end of the day, one shouldn’t be too extreme in his methods.

But for me to say that… should still be alright, right?

I sent off Warwraith with a slight tinge of guilt in my heart. That horse even forgot to give me his customary glare before trotting off. In all likelihood, he was on the verge of mental collapse right now.

Mo Na seemed to have picked up on this little fact as well. With a cheeky grin, and a loyal Hellhound at her side, she said, “Mama, Mo Na feels that horse was really pitiful just now.”

“Woof woof.”

“If even you say that, then he must really be pitiful.”