Chasing after the routed troops was beyond easy. The demonkin were fast in their retreat, and they had experts bringing up the rear to deter Zhao Jundu and Song Zining from killing the ordinary soldiers. This limited the damage to their forces outside of the forest, but the fate of those within had more or less been sealed.

The demonkin fighting the beasts inside the forest made up the bulk of the unit, so Song Zining didn’t chase the retreating soldiers for very long. He turned his forces about and led them to exterminate the demonkin in the woods.

Due to the isolation effect of the forest, most of the demonkin inside had no idea that their forces outside had fled. By the time they had noticed something was wrong, they were already caught between the Empire and the beasts.

Woodland combat was complicated, and after eliminating the demonkin, the Imperial soldiers had to deal with the surviving beasts. These creatures would attack anyone regardless of faction. By the time everything had been settled, it was already mid...