Chapter 56: The Enemy Strikes

"Damn it, why are they here so fast? Judging by the situation, the enemy must be very close to this camp."

There was no time to dwell on this issue. Having arrived at the outskirts of the Black Woods the moment he received the news, Shi Lei immediately ordered the slingers to step forward.

Since the enemy was already aware of their presence one way or another, there was naturally no need to stay hidden.

Under these circumstances, the open wasteland outside the Black Woods was just right for the slingers to maximize their effectiveness.

Considering that a battle could break out at any moment, Shi Lei had already had people carry over several baskets of stone bullets before dark yesterday, stockpiling them on the outskirts of the Black Woods.

Now, there was nothing more to say. They formed up their ranks directly, waiting only for the enemy to enter their attack range to immediately launch an assault.

The slings whirled at high speed, emitting a whistling sound.

As soon as the slings began to spin, the primitive men on the opposite side seemed to react. After a brief commotion, their previously relatively dense formation quickly dispersed.

Shi Lei's expression sank as he watched this scene.

During the previous battle between the Black Moon Tribe and the Salt Lake Tribe, he had personally experienced the power of slings.

After joining Zhou Xu's command, he gained an even deeper understanding of them.

He knew that the biggest drawback of the sling was its lack of accuracy.

Aside from naturally gifted individuals like Zhou Chongshan, the other slingers in their tribe could basically only manage to send the stone bullets flying in the general direction.

Under this premise, once the enemy dispersed their formation, the hit rate of the stone bullets would become pitifully low...

Shi Lei did not think this was just a coincidence.

Judging from the reaction just now, it was abundantly clear that the other party had noticed the presence of the slings and reacted accordingly.

Moreover, when battles broke out between tribes, members usually advanced in tight clusters to increase their offensive power, and it was virtually impossible for them to scatter in such a random manner.

This gave Shi Lei reason to suspect that the enemy was probably well aware of the weapon known as the sling.

To Shi Lei, this was by no means good news.

Yet, he had no other choice now. He could only follow the original plan, gauge the distance, and have the slingers launch their attack in the hope of inflicting some damage upon the enemy.

The result was entirely predictable.

Facing an enemy who was well-prepared, the limited number of slingers posed almost no threat to them.

At that moment, the distance between the two sides closed rapidly, and Shi Lei made a decisive judgment, immediately issuing an order.

"Fall back into the woods!"

The number of enemies far exceeded theirs; at a glance, there were at least thirty or forty people.

In contrast, on the side of the Salt Lake Camp, including Shi Lei himself, the entire force deployed amounted to a mere nineteen people.

Fighting them head-on in a direct clash offered no chance of winning. Slipping into the Black Woods and using the geographical advantages of the forest to skirmish with the enemy was the only sensible course of action.

A chaotic battle soon erupted within the Black Woods.

However, the trees in these Black Woods were ultimately not lush enough, and the geographical advantage they could provide Shi Lei and his men was relatively limited.

Relying on this meager geographical advantage against an enemy twice their size, by the time Zhou Xu and the others arrived near the scene, Shi Lei's group had already been driven back step by step, and every single one of them had sustained injuries.

Utilizing the power of the "Eye of Insight," Zhou Xu quickly located their tracks.

Without time for hesitation, he quickly led Zhou Chongshan and the others into the fray.

Wielding a stone axe, Zhou Chongshan cut a swath through the enemy ranks like a bamboo split in two. After striking down three members of the opposing tribe along the way, he quickly drew the attention of the surrounding enemies.

"Crap! Come over here, everyone come over and help!"

Amidst the shouts, the members of the enemy tribe converged toward their position from all directions.

In the blink of an eye, they were surrounded by more than a dozen enemies armed with bone spears.

Yet, facing this formation, Zhou Xu felt not the slightest bit of panic.

With Zhou Chongshan alone, in terms of combat power, they had nothing to fear from a dozen or so enemies, let alone with him present.

Without wasting words, facing the encirclement, Zhou Chongshan and his men tossed the skeletons they carried on their backs onto the ground in an instant.

At the same time, without a second thought, Zhou Xu directly activated his mantra.

[Skeleton Soldier Control!]

In an instant, accompanied by cracking sounds, skeleton soldiers with green ghost fires burning in their eye sockets climbed up from the ground one after another.

This scene undoubtedly terrified the enemies opposite them.

"They're moving, the pile of bones is moving!!!"

Amidst the screams, as if by coincidence, the clouds in the sky shifted as well, blocking the sun—which was already obscured behind the clouds—even more tightly, making the entire world grow a shade gloomier in that instant.

The gloomy sky, the skeletons with ghost fires burning in their eye sockets, paired with the bizarrely shaped trees scattered throughout the Black Woods—

The bizarre spectacle caused the hair on the enemies' bodies to stand on end. Their momentum vanished instantly, and their steps instinctively retreated.

During this process, Zhou Chongshan showed no courtesy. Leading five tribal members and brandishing stone axes, he charged straight forward, bringing an axe down upon whoever he caught.

When they used bone spears in the past, the lethality was relatively limited.

Under normal circumstances, unless a vital organ was pierced, it was difficult to inflict effective damage on the opponent or render them incapacitated.

Now, however, with the weapon changed to a stone axe, the destructive power was unquestionably enhanced by a large margin.

Coupled with the fact that Zhou Chongshan's attacks were always full of explosive force, a blow from that axe hitting the head would likely leave the opponent with no chance of survival, while a blow to the limbs would result in severe fractures.

With both sides currently locked in battle, it was naturally impossible for Zhou Chongshan to show any mercy.

Not to mention that they were currently outnumbered; to ensure their own victory, swiftly reducing the enemy's combat strength was the priority.

Nurturing such thoughts, Zhou Chongshan's every move and posture were as ferocious as could be.

With a heavy axe-stroke down, an enemy failed to dodge in time, and his head instantly burst open like a watermelon.

In the blink of an eye, in the eyes of the enemy, the terror of Zhou Chongshan completely overshadowed the skeleton soldiers from before!

In this era of kill or be killed, Zhou Xu held no sympathy for the enemies. Glancing sideways, the surrounding skeleton soldiers picked up the handed-over bone spears and sprang into action.

Following Zhou Xu's instructions, they thrust forward in a coordinated array toward a single direction, forcibly repelling a figure attempting to launch a sneak attack.

The opponent clearly did not expect their ambush to be seen through.

After rapidly leaping backward to widen the distance and ensure their own safety, the expression on that figure's face was not one of annoyance over a failed attack, but rather one of utter astonishment.

In response, Zhou Xu remained quite calm; that fellow's movements were indeed swift and light, but they could not escape the vision of his "Eye of Insight"!

And just as Zhou Xu was thinking this, the opponent's voice rang out...

"Now this completely confirms it—you are the one who uses mantras to control these skeletons!"