Set a Wolf Against a Tiger

When establishing a territory, the first priority was to have a sufficiently secure base.

Once Kurd City District was built, that requirement was met.

With a base secured, it was time to expand outward.

"Lord Medivh, there's a Minotaur Tribe in these mountains. They've lived here for a long time..."

In the High Tower of Central Castle, Suixin relayed to Medivh what the Skeleton Assassins had discovered.

The bones they had unearthed lately had been disappointing, so Medivh had sent the Skeleton Assassins out long ago to search the Odyssey Region for Ancient Battlefield ruins.

The target they reported was a Minotaur Tribe in the mountains directly south of Kurd City.

The Minotaur Tribe was not far from Kurd City. A squad of warriors had once attacked the Armory Camp, making them a potential threat to Kurd City.

The Skeleton Assassins had been lurking in those mountains for a long time, gathering all kinds of information about the Minotaur Tribe.

The Minotaurs valued burial rites. Unlike Goblin tribes, which ate the corpses of their own kind, they buried their dead in a designated area.

A potential threat to Kurd City, and a people who valued burial rites. Together, these made them the perfect target.

"Time to stretch our legs."

Medivh was quite pleased with the target. After confirming that the Minotaur Tribe had no second-tier Transcendents, he immediately ordered the skeletons to assemble at the city gate.

He planned to lead the attack himself, launching a night raid on the Minotaur Tribe.

The skeletons moved quickly and soon gathered. At twilight, they marched out through Kurd City's south gate in a vast, silent column, heading for the Minotaur Tribe.

The mountains were far from quiet. Angry roars rang out every so often.

To test the Minotaur Tribe's strength, the Skeleton Assassins had been sneaking into the tribe to carry out assassinations from time to time over the past week.

Because of these repeated attacks, the Minotaur Tribe had been on high alert lately, making a surprise attack difficult.

When the enemy came, you met them; when the water rose, you raised the dam. Medivh turned the situation to his advantage, sending the Skeleton Assassins ahead to launch another raid and provoke the Minotaur Tribe's guards.

By then, nearly half the tribe's warriors had been lured away by the Skeleton Assassins. They were searching the mountains for the assassins who had been playing hide-and-seek with them.

To keep the Minotaurs' attention fixed on them, the Skeleton Assassins would occasionally dart out to kill a few warriors, then escape amid the Minotaur Chieftain's furious roars.

The Minotaur Chieftain was so blinded by rage that he failed to notice the Bone Spirit Assassins were drawing them farther and farther away.

The Time Skeletons weren't puppets. They were intelligent.

One of the two Bone Spirit Assassins kept leading the Skeleton Assassins in their game of hide-and-seek with the Minotaur warriors. The other slipped into a Magic Beast's territory, stole a few eggs, and ran.

When the returning Magic Beast followed the scent, the two Bone Spirit Assassins exchanged a look through their hollow eye sockets, then hurled the stolen eggs at the Minotaur Chieftain.

The eggs came whistling through the air. Thinking they were more projectiles thrown by the Skeleton Assassins, the Minotaur Chieftain swung his great axe to knock them aside.

With a crack, the shells shattered. Half-formed Magic Beast hatchlings and egg yolk splattered all over the Minotaur Chieftain.

Drenched in egg, the Minotaur Chieftain froze for a moment, then his expression changed drastically.

Those cunning Skeleton Assassins were even more underhanded than he had imagined.

This ploy to set one enemy against another put him at a terrible disadvantage.

Sure enough, the next instant, the Minotaur Chieftain heard an enraged roar.

Trees snapped in half beneath blades of wind, and a second-tier wind-type Magic Beast leaped out.

Seeing the remains of its unborn young on the ground, the Magic Beast's eyes instantly turned blood red.

"Fight!"

In that moment, the Minotaur Chieftain was covered in egg, and the axe in his hands was smeared with the young Magic Beast's flesh and blood. There was no way he could clear his name.

Objectively speaking, he hadn't meant to do it, but he had still smashed the egg.

The enraged Magic Beast wouldn't listen to any explanation.

There was no settling this grudge. They had to kill the second-tier Magic Beast as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, once it calmed down, it would attack the Minotaur Tribe without warning, spelling their doom.

The Minotaur Chieftain's eyes were bloodshot. He knew all too well that killing this second-tier Magic Beast would come at a bloody cost. Most of the Minotaur warriors who had come with him wouldn't make it back.

And that was the best-case scenario. They might all die here, after which the Magic Beast would continue its revenge against the Minotaur Tribe.

"What a talent!"

Medivh was faintly connected to the skeletons and could roughly sense what they were doing.

When he realized the Bone Spirit Assassins had used the Magic Beast as a weapon to attack the Minotaur warriors, he couldn't help praising them.

He had to admit, they specialized in assassination and were experts at stirring up trouble.

Victory went to the strong; defeat to the weak. He didn't think there was anything wrong with the Bone Spirit Assassins' underhanded tactics.

They were skeletons, after all. Was he supposed to expect them to be gentlemen of impeccable virtue?

The Skeleton Assassins had more than fulfilled their mission. The Minotaur warriors who had been lured away would have no chance to return to their tribe in time.

They had to seize this perfect opportunity. While the Minotaur Chieftain and his warriors fought the second-tier Magic Beast, Medivh's skeletons launched an attack on the Minotaur Tribe.

Most of the Minotaur warriors had been led away by the Minotaur Chieftain to hunt down the Skeleton Assassins.

The warriors left behind were focused on the pursuit in the mountains and didn't notice anyone approaching from beyond them.

By the time they realized what was happening, the skeletons had already climbed over the palisade and killed a number of Minotaurs.

There was no mercy in war. Under Medivh's command, the skeletons struck without hesitation, killing every Minotaur they encountered.

"Earth-Splitting Slash!"

A few Transcendents remained behind in the Minotaur Tribe.

But they were no match for the Transcendental Skeletons. With no danger to himself, Medivh used a Minotaur Transcendent warrior to test the earth-type combat technique he had learned.

The Minotaur was powerfully built, with thick skin and tough flesh. Medivh's Earth-Splitting Slash couldn't even shake him, producing only the effect of a sword-qi slash.

After practicing for a few rounds, Medivh didn't waste any more time.

He wasn't about to duel a Minotaur warrior fairly. He called over a group of Transcendental Skeletons to gang up on him and beat him to death.

Under the assault of more than a thousand skeletons, the Minotaur Tribe's defenses quickly collapsed.

The skeletons quietly cleaned up the battlefield, while a large group of Logistics Skeletons went to excavate the Minotaur Ancestral Graveyard.

Whether the Minotaur Chieftain could hold off the frenzied second-tier Magic Beast was anyone's guess.

If all the Minotaurs died, that second-tier Magic Beast might come to the tribe to take revenge. So Medivh had to hurry with the excavation.

He could leave the Minotaur Tribe's treasures behind, but he had to take the bones from the Minotaur Ancestral Graveyard. That was the main reason he had started this war.

The Logistics Skeletons worked efficiently. They dug up the bones one by one, loaded them onto carts, and sent them to Kurd City District.

The Minotaur Chieftain was remarkably tough. Medivh had already finished the excavation, but the battle elsewhere was still raging.