Chapter 58: Rising Dead
The air was tense, seemingly about to explode; both armies kept a complete silence, looking at each other warily as if any word could lead to the annihilation of them both.
However, some man has not been so resilient. They were breathing heavily, in symphony with evening grasshoppers.
The beasts were also exhausted; those that could not sweat had their tongues out, panting.
Sea of dead was around, spears and swords protruding from it. Puddles of blood like after a rain were covering the ground, little puddles on the leaves, large amidst the bodies.
Some blood was of different colors; however, it was mixing well and shining brightly before the evening sun that was struggling its rays through the trees.
"You know what is good in fighting beasts, brat?"
Said Du Fu and Li Song, his left hand swinging around uncontrollably, its bones dislocated, looked at him. The general was still as fresh, or rather he was in his prime since the beginning of the battle, his spirit burning hotter and hotter.
"No one can say shit like "All blood is red on a battlefield". No, here it is different."
Bloodthirsty look in the General's eyes made him shudder. Then he shook his head and fixed his shoulder with a swift move.
"What's now, general?"
He asked, looking at him.
"What, already exhausted?" Du Fu smirked.
"Welcome to the battlefield, son. Blood is different from your mother's milk, you know."
"Yeah, took me a while to get it." Li Son smiled bitterly and then suddenly punched a nearby maple:
"Feng, stop hiding, get here!"
His shout was twice as loud in the ears of surrounding warriors because of the silence. The next second yellow leaves rustled and a man fell down on his back.
"I was just taking a sniping position, young master."
"Without arrows?" Li Song grumped and pointed at the empty quiver on his back.
"Why am I even arguing, you stole that bow from a corpse and can't shot into woman's hole even if you inside. Get up and get ready, and if I won't see any scares on your face by the end of this battle, I'll deliver them myself."
"Yes, Young Master!"
Feng immediately got up. Then as if suddenly remembered something and started stealthy looking around the corpses.
"What's going on?" Meanwhile, the Li Song's attention was distracted off him.
"Are they infighting?" He asked, unable to keep his surprise.
"Hmm…" Du Fu frowned, also looking sternly at what was going on between the beasts' lines.
The battle has been going on for many hours already. After the animal's army suddenly retreated, they were expectedly caught into the traps set up during the first phase of the fighting. Of course, they were much more organized and numerous then it was expected and gave a hard time to the second army.
Still, they managed to kill many of them and held on until the first army caught up.
Then it was a pure bloody struggle.
Right now from the twenty thousand large human's army, only thirteen thousand remained.
From thirty thousand beast's army, only twenty thousand.
Not the largest numbers, but Li Song knew how high it was for such a battle, he was well read on the subject after all. Rarely fights were so bloody that almost a half was dead before the end of the struggle.
What's more, both armies were elites. Army of Du Fu consisted of warriors from the First Stage of Qi Gathering up to the Third, and several lieutenants were even higher. The beasts were able to match them, so they were also elites.
Right now, something was happening among the animals. It was an ideal chance. His entire being froze, he was about to shout to attack and crush them immediately.
However...
"Retreat!"
Rang like a hammer against his head. Li Song suddenly turned to Du Fu, staring at him like at a madman.
"Lower eyes brat." He said, not even paying him a look.
"Sometimes a general can feel when something is wrong, it is called instinct. Develops through many battles. And right now it's screaming to me to leave this place as fast as we can."
Du Fu shrugged.
"I'm going to listen to it."
"General, I…"
"You going to do what I have said, that's it. Consider it me breaking the order. Put me in chains if you want, Li."
Li Song could not say anything to it, looking at the army swiftly organizing retreat while some kind of chaos was going through the beast's lines.
"General, this..."
"Agh!"
A familiar scream rang from the side.
"Feng!" Li Song immediately turned to the source of it. His servant was clenching a sword, trying to free it from the grasp of a dead man. And that "dead man", half his face missing, was biting into the Feng's palm.
Bah!
Li Song stepped forward and hit the ground. A sharp pillar protruded from under the dead man's head, shattering it through.
"That's…" Feng made several steps back, falling to his back.
However, the corpse still was moving even with its head crashed, like a spider with its limb backward.
"Fuck off!"
Shouted Li Song who suddenly appeared just before it and pressed the monster with his leg, crashing all the remaining bones. Finally, the thing froze, only slightly trembling like a slug. However several second latter many screams started ringing over the entire army. Looking around Li Song saw a gut-wrecking scenery: the dead were rising.
Those without hands, heads, legs. Half-crippled, half-eaten, half-roasted, and half-melted; both beasts and humans like a swarm of insects were crawling toward them.
A body-less head of a large wolf fell from a tree, biting a soldier up to his neck. Several seconds later he also joined this underworld rebellion.
"Shit." Li Song trembled, and then looked at Du Fu.
The old man's fist just went through a limbless elephant shattering its skull completely and burning the skin.
"I knew it will be a bad day… Retreat, immediately, form circles and stick… to the living!"
He shouted while pulling his guandao from the elephant's corpse.
Li Song clenched his fists.
Whatever was happening, it wasn't time to think.
"Retreat!"
He also shouted and started fighting the corpses off.
What a long day.