Chapter 10: Victory

It would be great to kill all the NPCs, but even if Zhou Tian couldn't achieve this, he could still accept the outcome. After all, Zhou Tian's powers were limited, and as long as he didn't lose in a fight with this NPC team, it was a victory for him. Hence, even if he didn't achieve much in his pursuit of the NPCs, Zhou Tian did not feel anxious at all.

Apparently, Zhou Tian's behavior had a significant misleading effect on the NPCs.

Although there were monsters in the past with intelligence on par with the NPCs, all these creatures were high-level monsters. In the current novice area where Zhou Tian and his group were, even the biggest boss had only the intelligence of a ten-year-old child.

Due to the NPCs' specific understanding of monsters, even though the NPCs living in the novice area were vigilant around them, they really hadn't thought that these monsters would be capable of strategizing.

It can be said that Zhou Tian's previous tactic of setting up a three-man gank surprised the NPCs. Therefore, when being pursued by Zhou Tian, the NPCs naturally assumed that he still had unheard-of powers. They never expected that the Beastman Warriors, seemingly chasing after them with full force, were only slightly stronger than they were.

As a result, Zhou Tian's chase after the NPC group lasted several hours. It was only when the NPCs were about to break into the territory of another Beastman Warrior that they detected something unusual.

In their opinion, if Zhou Tian truly were stronger than them, he would have already played his trump card. However, Zhou Tian had only been chasing them without showing any intention of changing his strategy, which the NPCs found abnormal.

Due to their prejudice against the intelligence of monsters, the NPC group still couldn't figure out Zhou Tian's intentions. So, relying on their experience of battling Beastmen, the NPCs thought that Zhou Tian was attempting to herd them into another Beastman Warrior's territory.

Given this hypothesis, the NPCs began to suspect that this operation was orchestrated by the Beastman Leader. Once this thought surfaced, the NPCs naturally could no longer stay calm.

The NPCs estimated that if they continued to move deeper into the territory at that time, they would be annihilated. As such, after discussing among their key members, the NPCs decided to change their original plan.

With further penetration off the table, the NPCs were left with no other choice but to counterattack Zhou Tian. Their goal wasn't necessarily to kill Zhou Tian; as long as they managed to break through Zhou Tian's encirclement, they would have achieved their mission.

After the NPCs made such a decision, they quickly stopped running, reorganized their formation, and faced Zhou Tian's team directly.

Although the actual situation was a bit different from Zhou Tian's ideal outcome, he was already satisfied with the current state of affairs.

As such, Zhou Tian, who actually had no hidden trump card, wouldn't naturally give the NPCs much time to adjust. As soon as his team caught up, he immediately ordered the attack once the situation became clear.

The unpredictability of Zhou Tian's reactions caught the NPCs off guard, and they didn't have much time to respond. Ultimately, by the time the NPC group realized what was happening and hurriedly prepared for battle, Zhou Tian's Beastman Warriors were already almost upon them.

The following steps would no longer have any room for sly tricks. In the current world, things are relatively better for the NPCs, but for the monster camp's case, with the intelligence of Zhou Tian's Beastman Warriors, apart from a straightforward fight with the enemies, Zhou Tian really has no chance to use any skills. In the case where those Beastman Warriors simply didn't know how to cooperate, he didn't have any chance to try something different.

Although being a Beastman brought Zhou Tian a lot of helplessness, after things had reached this point, he was sufficiently satisfied. If at the beginning Zhou Tian had fought bitterly against the NPCs, his odds of winning wouldn't have been over half.

At present, after a long period of running, the physical power of that NPC team had been considerably consumed. Hence, benefiting from a significantly stronger physique than the NPCs, those Beastman Warriors under Zhou Tian get a few more chances of victory whenever they engage in combat.

Similarly, during the previous chase, the losses on the NPC side were heavier than Zhou Tian's. Given all these circumstances, Zhou Tian didn't have the confidence to say that he could capture all the NPCs. However, if his goal was just to win, he already had absolute confidence.

The facts indeed developed according to Zhou Tian's plans. Right after the two sides began fighting, the NPC side immediately showed signs of defeat.

Facing an enemy force several times their own, and in a situation where they weren't in peak condition and had no desire to fight to death, the casualties on both sides were almost equal.

In other words, for every Beastman warrior that died, Zhou Tian's side could generally drag along an NPC soldier to the nether. As compared to the previous wars involving NPCs and Beastman warriors, the Beastman warriors under Zhou Tian's command were definitely performing outstandingly.

If the advantage they had in military force continued, there wouldn't be any surprises. By virtue of their superiority in military force, the final victory would naturally be Zhou Tian's.

However, even though Zhou Tian currently has the upper hand, while the NPCs continue to fall, their intentions are also being realized.

No matter the cost, when that group of NPCs turned their heads and began to break out towards their village, the damage that Zhou Tian's Beastman warriors could inflict on them was not bad, but it was impossible for Zhou Tian to stop that group of NPCs' intentions. As such, even if the situation became increasingly favorable for Zhou Tian, there would be no problems for some of the NPCs to break out of Zhou Tian's encirclement.

Although Zhou Tian personally participated in this battle, he still has a clear understanding of the current situation. However, he didn't really care about the NPCs breaking out. In Zhou Tian's plans, he always strived to kill as many members of the NPC team as possible. Whether he could annihilate the entire NPC team was never a consideration for Zhou Tian. Thus, even if the NPCs could eventually break out, Zhou Tian wouldn't care at all.

As a result, after the two sides had been fighting for nearly a quarter of an hour, only after losing nearly eighty percent of their members did that NPC team finally manage to break out.

After that NPC team broke out, Zhou Tian still did not let them go. When that NPC team was fleeing back, Zhou Tian had no qualms about leading his Beastman Warriors to chase and kill them.

After chasing them to the boundary of their sphere of influence, only then did Zhou Tian victoriously led his Beastman Warriors back home….