Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 213
Chapter 213
Aze was temporarily unable to free himself from the pterosaur, but Chen Qi, sheltered behind him, reacted quickly. He loaded the crossbow in one swift motion. Before the pterosaur could escape the shooting range, he released an arrow. A sharp whistle split the air—the bolt had even more force than Aze’s earlier shot. Half the shaft sank straight into the pterosaur’s heart. Its body wobbled mid-air, obviously losing control, and after a moment it plummeted straight down, skimming past the city wall before crashing into the darkness below.
By this time, Aze and the hyena-drake had already engaged. When the creature lunged, Aze stepped sideways to meet it. He had already slung his wooden bow behind him, slipped around to the hyena-drake’s back, grabbed its thick tail with both hands, and gave a fierce yank. The beast staggered backward several paces, pulled farther away from Chen Qi.
The city wall wasn’t very wide, and it was cluttered with fire basins, firewood, spare arrows, boiled oil, and all manner of tools prepared for dealing with the dragon horde. The environment made it difficult for the hyena-drake to maneuver, but it worked greatly in favor of the much smaller beastmen.
Chen Qi stayed alert to his surroundings while providing cover for Aze.
The pterosaurs in the air weren’t aiming for this section of the wall. Many of them were flying deeper into the tribe, each with a hyena-drake clutched in its talons. Chen Qi shot the one hyena-drake in the corner of its eye, forcing it back. Aze seized the opening—while the creature’s attention was drawn by Chen Qi, he rushed in, flipped it to the ground, and swiftly slit its throat with his sharp claws.
After finishing off that hyena-drake, the two hurried to find Azhang. There was no time for explanations. Chen Qi quickly said, “Leave some people here to hold the line. Everyone else, fall back to the inner wall. Hyena-drakes have already gotten into the tribe—we need to deal with those pterosaurs first.”
Azhang nodded. He shot down a pterosaur attempting to land, then handed command of the second wall to Achu and personally led a group back toward the tribe.
Between the ice wall and the second wall lay many traps. Beyond the rows of burning barricades on the outermost perimeter were chevaux-de-frise and wooden fences packed with gunpowder.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Outside the second wall, numerous fire pits had been set up—meant to provide light in case of a night raid. Now, all of them were ignited by flaming arrows. The fires roared upward, illuminating the area outside the city as bright as day. Even the silhouettes of the pterosaurs in the sky were now clearly visible.
Achu had to divide his attention—keeping watch for movements from the ironshell-drakes outside, triggering traps in the correct order, and monitoring the pterosaurs overhead. The pterosaurs clearly wanted to destroy the troublesome siege crossbows on the wall, but with their level of natural defense, they couldn’t get close. In frustration, they circled restlessly above, ready to dive down at any moment.
Chen Qi and Aze also returned to the inner wall. By the light of the stone lamps within the tribe and the lanterns hanging along the roads, they could already see numerous hyena-drakes inside the settlement—especially near the school playground and the wide fields used for crops. The open spaces had become ideal landing spots.
Because of how the houses were constructed, many rooftops had flat spaces. Long before the attack, the beastmen had known that pterosaurs were appearing on the plains, so Chen Qi had already ordered many weapons to be stationed on the roofs—everything from siege crossbows to wooden bows and bolts.
Axu had returned to the tribe with a few people as soon as the little wolf cub started howling. Now, he stood atop a house, manning a siege crossbow aimed at the pterosaurs above.
Thanks to the large amounts of insect wax and animal fat collected over the summer, the tribe wasn’t nearly as dark as the outside. Candlelight and firelight were enough for the females to make out the silhouettes of the pterosaurs. Some pterosaurs, which hadn’t yet dropped their hyena-drakes, were shot down mid-air. Two dragons would fall together from the sky; from that height, with their weight, both hyena-drake and pterosaur would hit the ground dazed and dizzy.
Before they could recover, several females—taking advantage of the terrain—were already at their sides. They slit the throats of the fallen dragons with sharp claws, eliminating any chance of them rising again.
The females cooperated seamlessly, maintaining high efficiency. They did not panic at the dragons suddenly appearing inside the tribe. Seeing this, Chen Qi finally let out a quiet breath of relief, glad that he had made everyone rehearse the pterosaur-response drills in advance.
“The entrance to the cellar hasn’t been tampered with.” Ake, covered in blood from who-knows-where, suddenly appeared. He wiped his face casually and reported to Azhang.
The school gate hadn’t been damaged by the hyena-drakes either. A giant wolf-god, its entire body snow-white, stood guard at the entrance, locked in battle with several hyena-drakes.
The little wolf cub was already covered in bite marks, with several claw wounds across its back. Tufts of fur had been torn out, and blood seeped down along the gashes, staining the white coat red—it looked extremely battered.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Chen Qi shot a bolt into the eye of a hyena-drake that was about to pounce on the little wolf cub from behind. With a painful howl, the hyena-drake crashed into the courtyard wall, the arrow still embedded in its eye. The little wolf cub seized the chance, tackled it to the ground, and bit down hard on its throat.
Chen Qi had been crouching on the trunk of a red-fruit tree; his movement caused the snow resting on the branches to shake loose and fall onto his cloak. After Aze settled Chen Qi in place, he immediately leapt down to join the fight. The moment the little wolf cub spotted Aze, its entire body jolted, its spirit instantly lifted—after finishing off the hyena-drake that had been shot in the eye, it lunged at another.
Once the nearby hyena-drakes were dealt with, Chen Qi quickly pulled out the wound medicine and bandages he’d prepared in advance from his backpack and performed a simple, rapid treatment on the little wolf cub. Seeing the little wolf cub looking up at him pitifully, Chen Qi felt a pang of heartache. He rubbed its head in praise before the two men and one giant wolf-god rejoined the battle.
The fight dragged on for a long time—long enough that Chen Qi’s hands, gripping the crossbow, had gone stiff with fatigue. Luckily, a crossbow didn’t require the same strength as the wooden bows used by the females, or he doubted he could have held out this long.
At some point, snowflakes had begun to drift down, and the temperature noticeably dropped. Chen Qi tugged his mask down slightly to catch his breath. The moment he exhaled a cloud of white mist, a blast of cold wind hit him head-on, sending a shiver through his entire body.
Under the barrage of arrows, the number of hyena-drakes inside the tribe was gradually brought under control. Many of those who had slipped in during the night had already been dealt with. Only a few scattered ones remained—either shielded by the houses or hiding inside rooms with smashed door curtains. The beastmen were too exhausted to hunt down every last one. A few were left on guard for the pterosaurs’ return, while everyone else withdrew to the inner wall.
Across all of Qi Ze City, aside from the underground cellar used for hiding, only the watchtowers on top of the walls were safe enough for the beastmen to catch their breath.
Chen Qi and Aze had barely set foot on the inner wall when another deafening rumble shook the air. The second wall—built over the course of several months—collapsed entirely, just like the ice wall had before. From the rubble, a man clad in gleaming silver beast scales lifted his head slightly. At that moment, the sun rose over the horizon, its soft light falling upon him. Backlit as he was, Chen Qi couldn’t make out the man’s expression.
The beastmen atop the inner wall stared grimly at the fallen second wall.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Thud, thud. A moment later, two pterosaurs dropped from the sky and crashed to the ground right in front of the man. Then, cutting through the morning light, a thunderous dragon roar shook the world. Chen Qi lifted his gaze. Amid the wind and snow, a colossal white dragon—its form strikingly similar to the dragons of Chen Qi’s original world—swept its long tail. Wherever the tail passed, several pterosaurs were struck out of the air and tumbled down into the mass of hyena-drakes below.
The appearance of the great dragon caused immediate unrest among the hyena-drakes. But when the man swept his gaze across them, the chaos abruptly ceased. The hyena-drakes roared up at the white dragon in the sky, as if trying to provoke it into descending and fighting them head-on.
Even though Chen Qi had long accepted that this different world was full of dragon species, he had never imagined one so perfectly matching the dragons from his original world.
“It’s an Azure Dragon!” an older female cried out in shock.
The Azure Dragon was said to be a dragon species living at the far end of the plains. The beastmen knew far less about them compared to the forest dragons. And by their name, Azure Dragons were mostly blue-green in color—yet this snow-white one, resembling the giant wolf-god, had never been heard of. Still, in form, it unquestionably fit the description of an Azure Dragon.
Before anyone could recover, another loud wolf howl rose from behind the hyena-drakes. Bathed in the early morning light, even Chen Qi—whose vision wasn’t as sharp as a beastman’s—could see the far end of the hyena-drake horde erupt into chaos at the sound.
The man standing at the front of the hyena-drakes simply stared up at the Azure Dragon, silent. The corner of his lips curled faintly—somewhere between a smirk and not. He waved his hand for the ironshell-drakes and hyena-drakes to continue their assault, then turned and walked slowly backward. As he moved, his body began to change—his hands turning into bestial claws. Soon, the man’s figure completely vanished, replaced by a hyena-drake two or three times larger than an ordinary one.
The hyena-drakes immediately cleared a space for their leader. Even the pterosaurs, still flapping overhead, scattered. The Azure Dragon’s long whiskers swayed in the wind as it watched the hyena-drake leader for a brief moment. Then its massive body twisted, and it surged after him.
As they neared the outer edge of the hyena-drake horde, the Azure Dragon dove. But the hyena-drake leader seemed to have anticipated the move long beforehand—he dodged sideways with surprising agility, then sprang upward with all four claws. In the next moment, dragon and beast clashed fiercely.
Between the second wall and the inner wall lay the massive pit that had been dug out. A giant net, woven like a fisher’s net, stretched across it to prevent snowfall from burying the opening. Clearing it each time it snowed required considerable effort. Dead branches and leaves were laid on top as camouflage.
After receiving their leader’s order to attack, the dragons advanced without hesitation. The leading ironshell-drakes charged straight forward—and immediately fell into the pit trap.
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: 2 of 3 for the week.
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomKnight73
Proofreader: Yume
Editor stepping into the realm of MTL translating, starting with CLWP. Support this translation with a Ko-fi. Three Ko-fis will add an extra chapter from the stockpile to the next weekly release.
