Racing over the dunes, the Scorpion Palace guards rode their mounts, their expressions ugly.

Their mounts kicked up clouds of crimson sand as they charged across the desert without slowing down, moving with a sense of urgency they had never experienced before.

The Palace Captain wore a grim expression, his eyes scanning the dunes with seriousness.

His sharp gaze swept across every hill and valley, unwilling to overlook even the slightest trace that might reveal what had happened to the Scorpion Clan army.

’What is going on?’ His thoughts raced.

Confusion and uneasiness slowly filled his heart as countless possibilities flashed through his mind, yet none of them seemed capable of explaining the current situation.

This was the first time they had been dispatched into the desert.

And for what?

To look for their army.

Such an order was unheard of, making every member of the palace guards realize the gravity of the situation.

For every Scorpion Man, their army had always been invincible and mighty.

It was the pride of the entire Scorpion Clan, a force that had crushed countless enemies and protected their city for generations.

But now, they were being dispatched to search for them.

Just the mere thought of it puzzled him greatly, even though they were elites among elites, serving the King directly.

Large-scale battles were never their forte.

More importantly, they were now searching for an enemy capable of making their mighty army vanish. Against such an unknown force, even their confidence began to waver.

Taking a deep breath, the Palace Captain controlled his emotions as they climbed another dune.

His expression gradually returned to calmness, but the uneasiness in his heart refused to disappear.

Hmm?

Standing on the dune, the Palace Captain and his squad’s expressions changed.

Almost simultaneously, they instinctively pulled on their mounts, bringing them to an abrupt stop as they stared toward the distant horizon.

From their location, they could hear the raging sounds of battle coming from the distance.

Deafening explosions echoed continuously across the desert, while violent shockwaves rolled through the air one after another.

"...Is t-that..." one of the palace guards pointed, stuttering.

His hand trembled uncontrollably as disbelief filled his eyes.

Their captain did not respond, his expression ugly.

’Who would have thought the battlefield was not far from our city?’

His eyes narrowed as he stared at the enormous cloud of dust rising into the sky, his heart growing increasingly heavy.

"Captain... should we continue or retreat?" another guard asked, his face filled with confusion.

His voice carried obvious hesitation as he looked toward the battlefield and then back toward the direction of Scorpion City.

Now that they had discovered the battlefield, they could either continue forward or return and report to their King.

Unknown to them, their every action was under Thoren’s surveillance.

They thought their discovery of the battlefield was a mere coincidence, but they were wrong.

Too wrong.

Thoren had deliberately allowed them to get closer to the battleground.

From the very beginning, he had already noticed their arrival, yet he never issued the order to intercept them.

He wanted to allow them to see the fate of what awaited anyone that went against him.

Sometimes fear spreads far more effectively than rumors, and nothing instilled fear better than witnessing absolute destruction with one’s own eyes.

Staring at their captain, who was unusually quiet, the palace guards held their breath, their faces filled with dread.

"Let’s get closer. We need to see what is going on in the battlefield before we report to the King."

With that, the Palace Captain urged his mount to continue forward.

His eyes remained fixed on the distant battlefield as he tightened his grip around the reins, his expression growing increasingly solemn.

Behind him, the squad followed, but each of them had unsheathed their weapons.

Each wore a solemn expression.

The previous confidence they carried when leaving Scorpion City had long disappeared, replaced by uneasiness and growing anxiety.

Carefully and slowly, they approached the battlefield.

The closer they got, the clearer they could hear the raging sounds of the battle, each deafening explosion shaking the ground beneath their mounts.

More importantly, they finally heard the miserable scream of a figure.

It was filled with pain, rage, and unwillingness, echoing across the battlefield like the roar of a cornered beast.

’Why does that cry sound like the General?’ the Palace Guard Captain thought, his face filled with confusion.

His heartbeat unconsciously quickened as an uneasy feeling began spreading throughout his body.

The General was the mighty man behind their army.

Every soldier could be defeated on the battlefield, but not their General.

To every member of the Scorpion Clan, he represented invincibility itself.

This was not from rumor or myth.

He had once witnessed the might of the General in one of the battles in the past, where the General single-handedly turned the tide of war with overwhelming strength.

No matter how strong and mighty the enemy was, the General cut through them with ease.

His massive saber swept across the battlefield like divine judgment, leaving nothing capable of standing before him.

And now...

Listening to his cry, the Palace Captain was shocked to his core.

Still, he controlled his expression, keeping his thoughts to himself as they moved closer to the battleground.

Slowly, their mounts climbed the last dune, and the scene before them opened up. The vast battlefield finally revealed itself completely.

This!

All the palace guards felt a cold shiver run down their spines. Their pupils contracted violently as disbelief instantly filled every one of their faces.

Corpses.

Endless corpses.

That was what welcomed them.

As far as their eyes could see, the battlefield had become a sea of death, leaving almost no patch of untouched crimson sand behind.

And these were not ordinary corpses but the corpses of their Scorpion Clan.

Scorpion Men they recognized.

The brutal and gory scene was too much for them that none of them moved for a couple of seconds.

Their mounts also became restless, instinctively sensing the overwhelming smell of blood lingering in the air.

Each wore various expressions.

Shock.

Disbelief.

Confusion.

Fear.

None of them could accept the reality before their eyes.

Where was their mighty army? they all cried in their minds.

The army they believed capable of crushing any opponent had disappeared, leaving behind only mountains of corpses.

Not in their wildest dreams did they expect to see such a scene. Everything they had believed about the Scorpion Clan’s invincibility shattered within a single glance.

They might accept if the desert devoured them.

They might accept it if they vanished into thin air.

But not this.

Not such a complete massacre.

The Palace Captain trembled, his eyes moving from one corner of the battlefield to the other.

Everywhere he looked, death greeted him, making it impossible to find even the slightest trace of hope.

Broken bones.

Severed heads.

Severed stingers.

Dead Dune Scorpions everywhere.

Broken weapons.

Shattered shields.

It was an apocalypse of the Scorpion Clan. Their mighty army had not merely been defeated—it had been completely annihilated.

Just as the palace guards were looking at the endless dead bodies, a whistling sound echoed in their ears.

It was sharp, fast, and carried an unmistakable killing intent that instantly sent chills through everyone’s body.

Swiss!

One of the palace guards slowly raised his hand to his neck and held it for a moment. His expression became blank before a thin line of blood suddenly appeared beneath his fingers.

Thud!

His head separated cleanly from his neck.

The severed head rolled down the slope of the dune while his headless body remained frozen on the mount for a brief second before collapsing heavily onto the crimson sand.

Seeing this, the Palace Captain widened his eyes for a moment, and then

"Run!"