The Damn Monkey
Three days later...
At the entrance to Impassable Valley—a strategically defensible pass that was also the only way in or out of Shamen Village—the short, comical, hairless rat, the King of Shali Kingdom, was inspecting the area with his somewhat dim-witted but incredibly strong son, Sha Erlang. As they walked, he scolded and encouraged the rat demon soldiers who were building barricades, trenches, and arrow towers:
"Come on, boys!"
"Get a move on!"
"Pay attention!"
"We need to defend the high ground!"
"Make sure those barricades are in place, and dig the trenches and pits deeper!"
"That's right!"
"Just like that."
"Listen up!"
"That little two-legged sheep and that little monkey could come back at any moment. We have to stay alert!"
"We must hold this place!"
"Only by holding it can we survive!"
The reason they were doing all this, of course, was that the several groups of rat demon soldiers they had sent out—the full few hundred of them—had never returned!
The King of Shali Kingdom and his rat demon followers weren't all fools, so the day before, they had sent scouts to investigate. But the scouts had made a horrifying discovery: every rat demon soldier sent to hunt down the little two-legged sheep and the monkey had died.
Then, after the scouts hurried back with the news, the King of Shali Kingdom realized they had made the cardinal military blunder of splitting up their forces.
So!
After immediately sending a messenger to report to Great King Yellow Wind, the King of Shali Kingdom had simply adopted the cowardly tactic of hunkering down. He had the remaining five hundred or so rat demons set up camp and build fortifications here in Impassable Valley, with no plans to seek revenge on the terrifying little two-legged sheep