On the night of January 9, at the mouth of the northernmost fjord of Moonfall Lake, Yumis Longtooth, a High-Rank Walrus-folk Mage, lay in ambush underwater with nearly all the Sea Beastmen warriors from Moonfall Lake.
The fewer than three hundred Mid-Rank and Low-Rank clansmen behind him made up the entire strength of the Sea Beastmen of Moonfall Lake. Even the 150 pufferfish warriors following them were only there to bolster their numbers; they had no intention of joining the battle.
Two streams of bubbles escaped Yumis's nostrils. He calculated the time: in ten minutes, the Low-Rank Sea Beastmen would have to surface for air. If they surfaced near the mouth of the fjord, the Merfolk would inevitably spot them.
Even now, he couldn't be entirely sure that the Great Knight named Susie Lanyuan would prove reliable—that she could really help them sweep away the Merfolk and Sea Monsters outside the mouth of the fjord.
A few days earlier, Susie had circled above Moonfall Lake for a long time in full view of the entire clan. After landing, she had told Yumis that the Merfolk near the fjord's mouth were showing signs of weakness. The Sea Beastmen should now make their opponents misjudge the situation, then seize their chance amid the confusion.
For the opportunity Susie had promised, Yumis and two other High-Rank warriors had made sorties for four days straight. Each day, they led a force of around twenty men to launch attacks and fight several fierce battles against the Merfolk near the fjord's mouth.
It was fair to say that without the dozens of newly transferred Beastmen Life Mages and hundreds of Magic Pattern Cabinets at North 8 Castle, Yumis wouldn't have had even two hundred men fit to fight.
After several days of charges, the Merfolk had