I Built a Beast Empire After Reincarnation-Chapter 40: The Clash Before Dawn

The sun had barely risen when a scout burst through the gates of Greystone, panting heavily, his armor scratched by brambles and his boots caked in mud.

"Enemy in sight! They’ve reached the border!"

Lucas was already in the central command tent, surrounded by his lieutenants and his closest companions. A wave of silence swept through the room. The storm had arrived.

"How many?" Lucas asked.

"Two thousand, at least. Beast riders. Siege units. They’ve set up camp ten miles from our southern border. Their banners... it’s the chained lion. Lord Agram himself leads them."

Lucas’s expression hardened. The Warhound of Stonewatch had come, and with him, the full wrath of Prince Varion.

He turned to his commanders. "Reynard, you’re in charge of the city’s defenses while I meet them. Kaela, Elira—you’re with me."

Reynard saluted. "Yes, my lord. I’ll have the ballistas and flame towers ready."

Lucas nodded. "Don’t engage until my signal. We might buy ourselves some time."

The three rode out, escorted by a small vanguard. The open field before the Greystone border was vast and quiet, the tension hanging like a noose. At the center, a delegation waited under the black-and-silver banner of Stonewatch.

Lord Agram stood tall and grim at the front, flanked by his three generals—Darion Bragg with his fresh scars and eagle helm, General Corven towering with a fur cloak and his massive beast hound beside him, and General Nera Valen, the Silver Fang, perched like a razor-honed blade, her silver hair pulled into a tight braid.

Lucas, Kaela, and Elira dismounted and approached. Agram’s eyes narrowed at the sight of Lucas.

"So, it’s true," Agram sneered. "Stonewatch trembled over a boy. This is who defied our prince?"

Darion snorted but said nothing, keeping his gaze fixed on Lucas’s gauntlets.

Lucas stepped forward, unwavering. "I am Lucas Carter, Lord of Greystone. And I will not bow."

Agram chuckled darkly. "Bravery, or foolishness? You still have a choice, boy. Open your gates. Swear fealty. Prince Varion is generous. You may even keep your walls—for now."

Lucas raised a brow. "Fealty in exchange for what? Forced labor? Tribute until our children starve? I’ve read what Stonewatch leaves in its wake."

Corven stepped forward. "You’ll leave more than books behind if you don’t submit. We’ve crushed cities bigger than yours. Your little forge-town won’t even be a memory."

Agram held up a hand to silence him. "Let’s not rush to bloodshed. Prince Varion makes you an offer: Submit, and we’ll invest in your mines. Turn Greystone into a trade hub. You will be rich, respected... and under the crown’s watchful eye."

Lucas looked at Kaela and Elira, then back at Agram.

"You almost sounded sincere, Lord Agram. But the gleam in your eye betrays your thoughts. You see a naive boy. An easy win. A city ripe for looting."

Agram’s smile faded.

Lucas continued, "We won’t surrender. We fight. Every stone, every street, every inch of Greystone will resist."

Nera Valen smirked, but Corven groaned, turning away. "So be it."

Agram nodded once. "Then prepare your dead."

Lucas turned, signaling Kaela and Elira. As they remounted and rode back, Elira leaned in close. "You saw through that trap well. I’m impressed."

"They were too eager to offer. That’s never a good sign," Lucas replied.

Kaela’s eyes were narrowed, her mood fierce. "Still, you kept your composure."

Lucas exhaled. "I had to."

...

As they made their way back toward Greystone’s outer perimeter, the early morning mist clung low over the fields. Birds scattered from trees as an unnatural silence settled across the path.

Lucas slowed his mount. Something was wrong.

"Elira," he said sharply, "how many riders do you see?"

She scanned the horizon, her beast-bonded eyes narrowing. "None. Too quiet. Too still. No patrols. No wildlife."

Kaela drew her blade, tension coiling through her like a spring. "We’re being watched."

The ambush sprang like a steel trap.

From the trees on both sides, black-clad assassins burst forth—twelve in total, masked and armed with hooked blades and shortbows. They moved with terrifying coordination, blades glinting as they surged forward.

"For the Warhound!" one shouted, loosing an arrow.

Lucas rolled from his saddle as the arrow whistled past, summoning Umbra mid-air in a flash of shadow. The obsidian wolf fused with him instantly, forming dark armor and a clawed gauntlet that caught the next blade mid-swing.

Kaela spun from her mount, meeting two assassins in a whirl of steel. Her beast-mark pulsed as her speed surged unnaturally. She moved like a blur, severing a man’s tendons before plunging her blade into another’s chest.

Elira leapt from Luna’s back, raining arrows before she hit the ground. Each one struck true, two assassins crumpling before they could even draw close. Luna growled and lunged, fangs finding flesh.

Lucas met three at once. One slashed low, another high, while the third went for his throat. He ducked under the high swing, kicked back the low one, and let his clawed gauntlet catch the final attacker by the neck. With a surge of Umbra’s power, shadow tendrils exploded outward, slamming all three to the ground.

"They’re targeting me!" Lucas shouted. "Agram wants this over before it begins!"

More assassins closed in—two with glowing blades enchanted for armor-piercing strikes. Lucas activated Zephyra’s mark. Lightning surged into his armor, and the shadows cracked with electric fury. He became a storm of movement—blades deflecting, gauntlets striking, bolts discharging with every counter.

One assassin tried to flank him—Elira’s arrow caught him between the eyes.

Another raised a glowing talisman.

Kaela’s blade cut him down before he could utter the incantation.

After a brutal minute of blood and sparks, only one assassin remained, crawling backward, mask torn, mouth bloodied.

Lucas stepped forward, gauntlet pulsing. "Who sent you? Speak."

The man coughed, eyes wide with pain and fear. "You... were supposed to die here. Lord Agram said you’d be... unguarded..."

Lucas’s eyes darkened. "Tell Agram: I don’t die easily."

With one last strike, he ended it.

The field grew silent once more. The corpses of trained killers lay scattered, their ambush shattered.

Kaela wiped her blade clean. "So much for diplomacy."

Elira kicked one of the bodies. "They wanted your head before the first arrow of war was loosed."

Lucas took a breath, forcing himself to calm down. "They’re scared. That’s why they struck first. We hold the advantage—and now I know Agram’s not just a general. He’s a butcher who fights dirty."

He turned toward Greystone, the rising sun catching the blood on his armor.

"War has already begun."