A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6333

While Jared cultivated inside the Pentacarna Tower, the Tribunal's army arrived at the Skywolf Tribe.

It was a morning with no sun.

The sky hung gray and dim. The clouds sagged so low it looked like they might press right down onto the ground.

The wind tore across the Wastelands, snapping the tents hard enough to make them crack and whip, driving the beast race banners crooked and sideways.

Hadrian was on the training ground, practicing with his axe.

His wounds still hadn't closed up cleanly. In the battle at the northern mine, his left arm had been split open with a gash so deep the bone showed, and the burn from holy radiance across his chest still hadn't fully healed.

But he was the Chieftain of the Skywolf Tribe. He couldn't go down.

Every morning, he came to the training ground and drilled with his axe.

He used sweat to dull the pain. He used that war axe to tell his clansmen one thing without saying a word: he was still here, and the Skywolf Tribe was still here.

The first one to spot the enemy was a sentry.

A young beast-race warrior slid down from the watchtower, hit the ground hard, scrambled back up, and staggered into the training ground.

His face had gone paper-white. His eyes were stretched wide, and his lips shook when he tried to speak.

"Chieftain! Enemy attack! The celestials... the celestials are here!"

Hadrian's axe stopped in midair.

He lifted his head and looked into the distance.

At the far edge of the Wastelands, golden radiance was starting to rise.

It wasn't sunlight. The sun was hidden behind the clouds.

It was holy radiance, the holy radiance of celestial cultivators.

Thousands upon thousands of streaks of holy radiance gathered into one mass, flooding the whole sky with a blinding gold.

Hadrian's pupils tightened.

He had seen celestial armies before.

In the course of his three-thousand-year life, he had watched them surround the Ghost Clan, surround the demons, and surround wandering cultivators.

But he had never seen this many celestial cultivators gathered in one place.

"How many?" His voice stayed level, but the hand gripping his axe gave a faint shake.

The scout swallowed. "At least... at least 3 thousand."

3 thousand.

The Skywolf Tribe had fewer than 500 warriors who could fight.

In the battle at the northern mine, 73 had died, and 120 had been left heavily wounded.

Now, fewer than 300 could still pick up arms.

300 against 3 thousand.

Hadrian went silent for a moment.

Then he turned and shouted to the beast-race warriors on the training ground, "Sound the war horn! Form up!"

The war horn rolled out across the Wastelands, low and desolate, like the dying cry of some giant beast.

In the span of 2 hours, the Skywolf Tribe's camp turned into a military fortress.

The old, the weak, the women, and the children were gathered into several great tents in the very heart of the camp.

The children still didn't know what was happening, and they went right on playing and roughhousing.

The women held their children close, their eyes fixed and unsteady.

The elders sat at the tent entrance without a word, rusted blades clenched in their hands.

They were old. They could no longer fight like they once had. But if the enemy broke in, they would still throw these worn-out lives into the line.

Hadrian stood atop the central platform of the camp and looked over all of it.

His left arm was still hanging in a sling around his neck, and the wound in his chest still throbbed faintly.

But his back was ramrod straight, and his eyes shone hard.

His son was dead.

More than half his warriors were already gone.

And now his camp was about to be ringed in by three thousand celestial cultivators.

But Hadrian couldn't go down.

He was the Chieftain of the Skywolf Tribe.

The Skywolf Tribe could be wiped out, but he could not surrender.

"Send people to every force. Right now. Tell them the Skywolf Tribe is willing to hand over most of our resources for aid."

"And find Mr. Chance. Tell him the Skywolf Tribe is in trouble."

Hadrian shouted the orders across the camp.

The Tribunal still hadn't attacked, and Hadrian used that narrow window to send people out for help.

At the same time, he pinned hope on Jared, too. A few days ago, he had backed Jared and completely fallen out with the Tribunal because of it. Now that the Tribunal had come for them, Jared had no reason to stand by and watch.

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