Chapter 159: I Don’t Believe It
“Dig! Hurry!”
Unlike the Lizard Queen, who was confused by Shu Yichao’s lack of reaction, the Antlion Whisperer was in complete panic.
There are enemies all around us!
The antlions were anxiously reporting their findings.
Kak!
Kak kak kak!
They repeatedly snapped their pincers in a panic to indicate how many enemies there were. While they weren’t smart enough to report the exact number, they could at least relay a rough estimate.
And when the scale of the enemy’s army spanned the scale of a major sandstorm, even a fool should realize that the situation was not in their favor.
Thus, the Antlion Whisperer immediately ordered the antlions to build three layers of defenses.
There was no way to escape unless he had the cooperation of the Lizard Queen, and they retreated while fending against the enemy,
So, after he built up his defense, he turned to the Lizard Queen and said, “My queen, we’re in a terrible situation. My servants have reported that the Tang army has at least 200,000 to 300,000 terracotta soldiers. There’s no way we can defeat them with the number of troops we have! We should retreat right now!”
“Terrible situation?” The Lizard Queen smirked.
With a tilt of her chin, she gestured at her sand monitors, who were massacring the terracotta soldiers in their path. The fearless charge of the terracotta soldiers failed to deal any damage to them; if anything, it was only building up a mountain of corpses.
I wield the advantage here, but you’re telling me that we’re in a bad position and I should retreat? Are you out of your mind?
The Antlion Whisperer was at a loss for words. He had no idea how he could argue against that.
Seeing that there was no way to convince the Lizard Queen, he could only rush the construction of his defense lines while analyzing possible paths of retreat.
I can only pray that the Lizard Queen doesn’t lose too many of her sand monitors.
Meanwhile, the Lizard Queen lay on her mount while watching the battlefield in amusement.
“Little charmer, let me see your panicking face. I’m sure it is alluring. I wouldn’t mind a little appetizer before the main course.”
Slowly, it dawned on the Lizard Queen that the circumstances were different from how she had imagined.
The sand monitors initially achieved great success advancing against the terracotta soldiers. Those terracotta soldiers wielded strength roughly comparable to a typical militia; to pit them against monster cavalrymen was like throwing an egg against a rock.
But the situation changed as the sand monitors ventured deeper into the enemy formation.
The terracotta cavalrymen had a loose formation that was easier to breach, but terracotta footsoldiers had an extremely packed formation. It didn’t help that there was an absurdly great number of them too.
The Lizard Queen had mocked the terracotta soldiers for their weakness, but it was a different story when there was an endless wave of them.
When the sand monitors breached the terracotta cavalrymen to ram into the terracotta footsoldiers’ formation, it looked as if they had dove right into a sticky swamp that bogged down their footsteps.
And the deeper they advanced, the greater the resistance.
Eventually, it reached a point where they stopped moving altogether.
It was only at this point that the Lizard Queen finally grasped the situation.
“This isn’t good!”
There were so many terracotta footsoldiers that they could bury the sand monitors alive.
“Come back, my babies!” The Lizard Queen blew her bone flute to signal her sand monitors to retreat. “I got careless. I didn’t expect those mud clumps to have something in them. It’ll take more than one charge to crush them. I’ll have to do it again.”
Despite the setback, she didn’t think that she would lose the battle. She believed that she had the absolute advantage based on the casualty ratio.
It was not as if she hadn’t dealt with tenacious enemies before, but so what?
The sand monitors had high stamina and endurance. If one charge wasn’t enough, they could simply go a second and third time. Her enemies would be the ones to crumble in the end!
But reality wasn’t that convenient.
“Oyoyoy, where do you think you’re running off to? Have you asked for permission yet?” Miazova remarked with a shake of its head.
The sand monitors suddenly began staggering with awkward footsteps as if they were in an intoxicated state. That wouldn’t have been a problem under normal circumstances, but in this tense battlefield…
“Hahaha!” Shu Yichao burst into laughter. “Charge! Bury them!”
“Sss! Ssss!”
Dozens of sand monitors were immediately buried.
The terracotta soldiers didn’t even bother dishing out damage to the sand monitors, knowing that it wouldn’t work. Instead, they stacked themselves on top of the sand monitors to crush them.
It didn’t matter whether the sand monitors smashed them into bits or not.
Unless you vaporize us, it’s only a matter of time before you get buried under our weight!
And the sand monitors didn’t have the means to vaporize the terracotta soldiers.
So, they ended up being buried alive, with only their heads exposed outside.
“My babies!”
Seeing dozens of the sand monitors she had painstakingly nurtured getting buried alive pained the Lizard Queen. Live burial was one of the most painful ways to die. Even though the sand monitors had their heads out, it was a matter of time before they succumbed to the pressure if they weren’t rescued soon.
“Save them all!” The Lizard Queen blew the bone flute, ordering her remaining sand monitors to slaughter their way back to rescue their imprisoned comrades.
“My queen, you mustn’t do that!” the Antlion Whisperer’s eyebrows twitched, and he screeched in shock. “Can’t you tell? We are already surrounded! We can’t afford to lose more of your sand monitors, or else we’ll be trapped here!”
“…”
Upon hearing the Antlion Whisperer’s words, the Lizard Queen instinctively eyed her surroundings, and cold sweat rained down her back.
Under the moonlight, she saw countless terracotta soldiers charging in from all directions, and their army stretched to the horizon. Their monster armies were like straw houses trying to stand against a massive mudslide.
“Impossible!” the Lizard Queen screamed. “How is their army so big? Is their general a mage? But how can he command so many undead?”
Outsiders watched the commotion; professionals inspected the technicalities.
Previous opponents thought that the scale of Shu Yichao’s army was absurd, but they knew that mages could control monsters and puppets, so they weren’t overly surprised by what they saw.
But fellow mages like the Lizard Queen found it utterly inconceivable. Every additional puppet exponentially increased the difficulty in terms of mana control and mental burden.
How insane must the mental burden be to simultaneously control hundreds of thousands of puppets?
“I don’t believe it! This is impossible! The Tangs must have more mages among them. As long as I find those mages…”