Chapter 587 Ambush 3

Chapter 587: Chapter 587 Ambush 3

Since they were already under attack, there was no longer any reason for her to conceal the use of magic when communicating with her people. Under the circumstances, the mindlink was the safest and most efficient method available.

Even if a high-ranking mage or witch detected that she was using magic to communicate, they would only know that a mindlink was being established. They would have no way of knowing what she and the others were actually discussing.

Unlike shouting or whispering among themselves, their enemies could not simply listen in and learn what they had discovered.

And now that she knew a witch was involved, the Priestess became even more wary because they were no longer dealing with ordinary werewolves or assassins.

"You vile creatures! You truly have no sense of honor!"

One of the Tigrens roared the moment he realized they had been drugged. Their bodies felt unnaturally weak, and worse, they could no longer shift into their Tigren forms.

With no other choice, they could only urge the beast within them to purge the toxins coursing through their blood. Until their bodies managed to expel the poison, they had no choice but to stall for time.

That meant fighting hand-to-hand in their human forms.

They also had to be extremely careful not to sustain any more injuries. By now, they could only assume that the attackers had prepared for this possibility as well. If they had coated their arrows with these toxins, there was a good chance that their other weapons, and perhaps even their claws, had been treated with them too.

Unlike werewolves, whose greatest weaknesses were silver and Wolfsbane, the Tigrens had their own natural weakness: which was the Black Ebony Grass.

To a Tigren, Black Ebony Grass had much the same effect as Wolfsbane did on a werewolf, severely weakening their bodies and suppressing their ability to shift. But their enemies had clearly not stopped there.

Knowing that Tigrens possessed naturally stronger bodies and an exceptionally powerful regenerative ability, they had deliberately combined the Black Ebony Grass with paralysis poison and the bleeding herbs to counter every advantage the Tigrens possessed.

The realization sent a chill through the warriors.

These attackers were more ruthless than any enemy the Tigrens had ever faced.

They had not simply prepared an ambush.

They had prepared specifically for the Tigrens.

Which could only mean one thing — their enemies had likely been planning this attack for a very long time, gathering information about the Tigren race and carefully researching their strengths, weaknesses, and abilities long before making their move.

And this discovery was very telling. If their enemies had already researched the Tigrens’ weaknesses to such an extent, then did that mean they had been targeting the Tigrens long before they ever allied themselves with Addison?

But no one had realized this yet.

The Tigrens knew little about the court politics of the Werewolf Kingdom, and they certainly didn’t have enough information to understand who might hold a grudge against them or why they had suddenly become a specific target.

All they knew was that someone was deliberately hunting them, and, judging from the precision of the ambush, their enemy clearly knew far more about them than they knew about their enemy.

That left the Tigrens fighting almost completely blind.

Every warrior remained on guard, their bodies tense as they scanned the surrounding forest. Their heightened senses stretched outward, desperately trying to detect the number, location, and movements of their attackers. Yet something was wrong.

They couldn’t sense them.

It was almost as though the entire area had been swallowed by an unnatural veil, masking the attackers’ presence and making it impossible for the Tigrens to pinpoint where the next attack would come from.

Perhaps it was the Witch.

Perhaps she was using her dark magic to conceal her allies, wrapping the battlefield in a spell that dulled the Tigrens’ senses and kept their enemies hidden.

The Priestess noticed it as well.

The reason she had been chosen as a Priestess in the first place was because she was a White Witch, a practitioner of magic that stood in direct opposition to the dark arts wielded by Dark Witches.

She wasn’t particularly familiar with the exact workings of dark witchcraft, but she knew enough to recognize what she was facing.

This was her natural enemy.

Her expression hardened.

The Priestess raised her staff, gripping it tightly before forcefully slamming its tip into the ground.

BOOM!

A pulse of magic rippled outward from the point of impact as she began chanting beneath her breath.

"Break!" the Priestess finally shouted.

The instant the word left her lips, an invisible pressure rippled violently through the air.

For a brief moment, nothing seemed to happen.

Then—

Crack!

It was as if something unseen had shattered around them.

The Tigrens’ ears twitched simultaneously, their heightened senses suddenly picking up presences that had been completely undetectable only moments ago.

One.

Then another.

And another.

Their enemies began appearing one after another from the surrounding darkness, their presences spreading throughout the forest like a net tightening around its prey.

At least the spell had been broken.

The attackers could no longer hide in the shadows while silently observing them like predators stalking unsuspecting prey.

But the relief lasted only for a heartbeat.

The more presences the Tigrens detected, the deeper their frowns became.

There were far too many.

They turned their heads, scanning the trees and bushes surrounding them as presence after presence emerged from concealment. Every direction they looked, they could feel another enemy waiting.

Their expressions gradually hardened.

They had finally been able to sense their attackers.

And somehow, that made the situation even worse.

"What, are you starting to get scared because we’re outnumbered?" the Deputy Chieftain said half-heartedly, deliberately keeping his tone light in an attempt to ease the tension among his warriors.

After all, this was hardly the first time the Tigrens had found themselves facing superior numbers. A single Tigren could fight a dozen opponents and still stand their ground, practically a one-man army. Numbers alone had never been enough to make them afraid.

Still, this situation was different.

Perhaps the uneasiness among his warriors stemmed from the fact that, for the first time, they couldn’t freely shift into their Tigren forms. Being forced to remain in their humanoid bodies deprived them of one of their greatest advantages, and even if none of them wanted to admit it, the restriction was bound to make them nervous.

But the Deputy Chieftain wasn’t afraid they would lose.

Not yet.

Even so, as he extended his senses and began counting the hostile presences surrounding them, his expression gradually became more serious.

Ten.

Twenty.

Fifty.

The number continued to climb.

By the time he stopped counting, he had already detected more than a hundred menacing presences surrounding their position.

His eyes narrowed.

"Stop standing around! Attack!" the Deputy Chieftain roared at his warriors.

His command snapped them out of their hesitation.

As if awakened from a brief slumber, the Tigrens threw their heads back and roared into the sky, their voices shaking the surrounding forest. Those positioned along the outer edges of the formation immediately broke away and charged in different directions, pouncing on the attackers they could now sense lurking within the shadows.