All the Mengtai fighters began to smile maliciously. They had never harbored any intention of letting go of the draconians. They simply didn't want to dirty their hands further—to watch a good show as the draconians turned on the humans.
To the Mengtai, the draconians had no choice but to comply. Their king had perished, and they had lost any chance at agency. With their strongest fighter dead, what was there to fear about the draconians?
The Mengtai champion simply wanted to watch the draconians and humans turn on each other—and to save his warriors a few deaths.
Upon sensing that the draconians were faltering, the Mengtai champion continued, "With the death of your king, your resistance is futile. Why sentence yourselves and your families to death? Live on!"
As the draconians fell into a moral conundrum, a voice interrupted, "I don't think I'm quite dead yet!"
The voice was so familiar that everyone was taken aback. They turned to the speaker—the draconian sage, who was slowly getting up as he clutched his chest. Because of his serious injuries, he was unable to maintain his draconic form. His body slowly shrunk until he became a white-robed elder.
Upon seeing that the sage was still alive, the draconians and humans let out relieved expressions. They had been saved from making a terrible choice, a terrible mistake!
The Mengtai fighters' eyes widened. They shouted, horrified, "The draconian sage isn't dead!"
The Mengtai champion's face turned dark. "Sage, how have you resurrected?"
The sage coughed violently. A few drops of blood spattered his lips. "I never died."
The sage had only gone unconscious because of the severity of his wounds—and he had just woken up from his daze.
The draconians hurriedly rushed toward the sage to help him tend to his injuries.
The Mengtai warriors frowned. If the sage was alive and well, just which king of the realm had died? The will of the world had indeed grieved for one such king just now...
The Mengtai champion's eyes suddenly widened. He thought of one possibility, but it was so ludicrous that he refused to entertain that thought. "Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
Some of the humans were looking up at the sky. Red though it might be, the skies grew progressively clearer as they extended into the territory of the humans and draconians—but red filled the entirety of the Mengtai skies. The humans understood what had to have happened. "If it's not our king that died..."
The draconian sage quickly understood what was going on as well. He sighed. "The world has to be mourning for a reason. If I'm still alive, then another king of the realm has to have perished. Your world is the closest—I recommend checking up on your king."
The Mengtai warriors glanced at each other, not comprehending what the sage was talking about—or, more accurately, choosing not to comprehend it.
How could they accept such an unbelievable truth?
The Mengtai champion's eyes turned blood-red. "You... you killed my elder brother?!"
Everything had been going according to plan—until now. The king of the Mengtai had fallen! contemporary romance
One of the Mengtai warriors asked, his voice quavering, "Behemoth, what are they talking about?"
Behemoth was the name of the Mengtai champion. The humans found it rather funny how different the names of the two Mengtai brothers were. Whereas the Mengtai chieftain had the name of a pig , the Mengtai champion was named for a mythological beast. It was apparent who the favored child was.
The Mengtai warriors stubbornly refused to consider the truth.
"Champion, what do the draconians mean? It's clear that the draconian sage was the one who died—but now it's suddnely our chieftain that perished?"
.
"Right, how could that be the case?"
"Behemoth, you have to teach them a lesson!"
The humans laughed as they mocked the Mengtai. "What, you still don't understand? While you were all here attacking us, your chieftain was killed!"
Behemoth's eyes turned blood-red. "It had to be you, all of you! You were only pretending to fight seriously—but in truth, you sent an assassin to take down my elder brother while we were all distracted! Draconian sage, this has to be your doing!"
The sage sighed. "Unfortunately, though I would have dearly wanted to do that, we humans and draconians are spent just from repelling all your invasion attempts. It's not us, but someone else. At this point, does it really matter who? You'd better head back to your settlement and see what's going on!"
The draconian sage hoped that Behemoth would retreat with the Mengtai. Only then would the humans and draconians gain some breathing room to repair the damage that had been wrought on their world, to deal with the aliens invading from all other fronts.
Realizing what the draconian sage was trying to do, the humans began to mock and taunt the Mengtai. "Don't you understand? You were betrayed by your allies! You allowed them to pass through your homeworld, but do you think those aliens are really your allies? No! You might want to get rid of us humans and draconians, but those aliens would be perfectly fine getting rid of you guys instead!"
The Heifeng, whose members were gigantic birds burning with black flame, immediately called out, "Ridiculous! Nonsense!"
The humans were using the Mengtai's own tactics against them. The Mengtai had been trying their best to convince the humans and draconians to betray each other; now, it was time for the humans and draconians to sway the Mengtai instead.
The humans continued, "You allowed the other aliens to pass through your lands, and they took that opportunity to kill your king! Otherwise, how do you explain your king's sudden death? What other cause could there be for his death except for a sneak attack from these other races?"
The more the humans talked, the darker Behemoth's face became. The Mengtai all began glancing at their allies furtively, with distrust and simmering rage.
The Mengtai and their allies had far weaker a bond than the humans and draconians, and the death of the Mengtai chieftain was a crippling blow. The Mengtai were therefore easily roused to arms by the humans' words.
The Mengtai fighters' eyes had all turned red, and the other alien fighters immediately got into defensive stances.
The humans and draconians smiled gleefully: their plan was working!
Behemoth roared in outrage, "Enough! If I don't bring your heads back with me, there's no way I can face my dead brother and my kin!"
The Mengtai warriors all howled, recovering from their rage and temporary lapse of judgment. They turned to target the humans and draconians, who understood that Behemoth had made up his mind to kill them.
The Mengtai's proof of kingship was kept in a secure location that would be difficult to find. Furthermore, even if it were to be stolen, the perpetrators would hardly make it out of the Mengtai homeworld—Behemoth would find and defeat them first.
However, with the Mengtai chieftain dead, the Mengtai's largest settlement had likely suffered serious losses. Behemoth and his warriors had to show that the Mengtai's sacrifice had been worth something.
If they were to fail to bring back even the draconian sage's head, Behemoth's reputation would instantly plummet.
Furthermore, this was the best chance to take down the humans. If the humans were to survive, they would surely take revenge on the Mengtai. Behemoth wasn't confident that he would be able to take down the humans if they were to invade.
Just as Behemoth was about to strike, however, an ear-splitting crash came from behind him. A gigantic pale-blue fish soared toward the clouds as though it was leaping out of water...
1. Peppa Pig, apparently...
done.co
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