The battlefield had reached a strange silence.
Not because the fighting had stopped.
But because the flow of the battle had already changed.
Within the dense forests of Kokuyou Hills, countless soldiers continued to clash, yet the movements of the armies were no longer decided by strength alone.
They were being decided by something invisible.
On the Zhao side of the battlefield, messengers continued running through the forest.
"Report!"
"The Qin vanguard has pushed further than expected!"
"Raido and Zenou's forces are advancing toward the central area!"
The Zhao officers looked toward Keisha.
But the Zhao commander remained motionless.
His eyes were not watching the Qin soldiers ahead.
They were watching the paths behind them.
"Their advance..."
Keisha quietly muttered.
"...is exactly what we wanted."
The officers froze.
"General?"
Keisha slowly raised his hand.
"Begin the hunt."
At that moment...
The Zhao battlefield began shifting.
Not with a loud charge.
Not with an overwhelming attack.
But with countless small movements.
A unit that had retreated suddenly turned around.
A group that had disappeared into the forest suddenly appeared from another direction.
Soldiers who had been pushed back began moving toward the same location.
The Zhao army was not trying to fight the Qin army.
They were trying to surround it.
Keisha had already understood something important about Kanki.
The Kanki Army was not an army built upon formations.
It was not built upon discipline.
It was built upon individuals.
Strong individuals.
Dangerous individuals.
Men like Raido.
Men like Zenou.
And that was precisely why Keisha targeted them.
"If the arms of the enemy are removed..."
Keisha said.
"The body will eventually collapse."
The first movement came from behind.
The path connecting Raido and Zenou's position to the second wave of Qin reinforcements...
Was cut.
"Enemy forces approaching from the rear!"
Kanki soldiers turned in panic.
"What?!"
"The Zhao that retreated earlier?!"
"They've regrouped!"
The Qin soldiers immediately realized the danger.
The Zhao units that had been scattered across the battlefield had never truly been defeated.
They had only been waiting.
Waiting for the moment when Qin's forces stretched themselves too thin.
The second wave attempting to reinforce Raido was suddenly forced into a desperate battle.
Every path forward was blocked.
Every path backward was filled with Zhao soldiers.
The distance between the Qin forces continued growing.
And within the forest...
The sound of battle became weaker.
Meanwhile...
Raido looked around.
The grin on his face slowly disappeared.
Not because he was afraid.
But because he finally understood.
The battlefield had changed.
The Zhao soldiers surrounding him were not the same soldiers from before.
They were fresh.
Organized.
Prepared.
A normal army would have already realized its situation was hopeless.
But Raido was not a normal soldier.
He was a man who had spent his entire life surviving situations where survival was impossible.
"Gyahahaha..."
Raido laughed.
"So that's it."
The soldiers nearby looked at him.
"The spider finally showed its web."
The Zenou Clan remained silent.
They simply stood there.
Surrounded.
Thousands upon thousands of Zhao soldiers surrounded them.
Yet their expressions did not change.
Because to them...
A cornered beast was not weaker.
It was more dangerous.
Keisha watched from afar.
The trap had succeeded.
The Qin reinforcements had been separated.
The Zhao forces that had been broken apart had returned.
The forests themselves had become walls.
The two strongest blades of Kanki's army were now isolated.
"Raido."
"Zenou."
Keisha whispered.
"You have nowhere left to go."
However...
There was something Keisha did not know.
Something impossible to understand through normal warfare.
The Kanki Army.
They were not soldiers who learned war inside military academies.
Before they carried Qin banners...
Before they became generals...
They were monsters that survived the mountains.
They were bandits.
And bandits had their own way of fighting.
Their own language.
Their own rules.
A single man stepped forward.
From his waist, he pulled out a small instrument.
A simple flute.
Old.
Damaged.
Covered in scars.
A relic from a time when these men were not generals.
But hunted criminals.
Raido smiled.
"Looks like it's time."
The man nodded.
Then he blew.
FWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—!!
The sound pierced through Kokuyou Hills.
It was unnatural.
Sharp.
Shrieking.
A sound that did not belong on a battlefield.
The Zhao soldiers immediately looked around.
"What was that?"
"What is that sound?"
But the Kanki soldiers...
They understood.
Every single one.
Their expressions changed.
Because that sound was not a retreat signal.
It was something far older.
A memory.
The Flame Whistle.
A signal from their days as mountain bandits.
A signal that had been used countless times when they were surrounded by enemies.
Its meaning was simple.
The situation had reached the point where orders no longer mattered.
The commanders no longer mattered.
The battlefield no longer mattered.
Only survival remained.
And once the whistle sounded...
The Kanki Army changed.
"Scatter!!"
"No formation!"
"Run!"
The Zhao soldiers froze.
Because what happened next...
Was something they had never seen before.
The Qin soldiers abandoned everything.
Weapons.
Positions.
Even their comrades.
They scattered into the forest like wild animals escaping a burning mountain.
"Are they retreating?!"
"They abandoned their own men!"
"What kind of army fights like this?!"
The Zhao soldiers were confused.
They expected discipline.
They expected formations.
They expected a commander trying to save his army.
But Kanki's men had none of those things.
Because long before they became soldiers...
They had spent years running from Qin armies.
Years hiding in mountains.
Years escaping impossible situations.
And from those years...
They had created the ultimate survival method.
Every man for himself.
A soldier who stayed behind would die.
But every man who escaped would force the enemy to chase countless different targets.
One man lost.
Ten men survive.
Ten men lost.
Hundreds escape.
It was cruel.
It was ugly.
It was something a normal army would never do.
But for bandits...
It was the strategy with the highest survival rate.
The Zhao pursuit began.
Yet they quickly discovered something horrifying.
The Kanki soldiers were fast.
Too fast.
They climbed cliffs.
Disappeared between trees.
Dragged themselves through impossible terrain.
They ignored wounds.
Ignored exhaustion.
Ignored everything except escape.
The Zhao soldiers could only watch.
"What... are these people?"
From his command position...
Keisha watched the chaos below.
The trap had succeeded.
But the result was different from what he expected.
The prey had escaped the cage.
Not by breaking it.
But by turning themselves into countless smaller prey.
Keisha narrowed his eyes.
"Kanki..."
For the first time that day...
The Zhao strategist showed a hint of interest.
"You truly are a troublesome man."
Night finally descended upon Kokuyou Hills.
The first day of battle came to an end.
The Zhao had seized the advantage.
The Qin army had suffered heavy losses.
Raido and Zenou had disappeared into the forests.
But Kanki's army...
Had survived.
And somewhere within the darkness...
Another Qin commander watched the battlefield.
A commander who had been observing Keisha's movements since the beginning.
Hyou Ren.
His eyes remained fixed on the forest.
"The hunter has revealed his hand..."
He said quietly.
"Now..."
"...it is our turn."