Amid the festive crackle of firecrackers, the roaring acceleration of source energy apparatuses suddenly burst into the air.
When the faint sounds first arose in the distance, both bride and groom felt a surge of excitement, turning their heads in pleasant surprise to gaze into the distance.
Just moments ago, Lao Jian had told Shang Nianhua that Han Qingyu and the others had promised to return today for the wedding feast, though it had seemed they wouldn't make it in time.
Yet they soon realized there were far too many of those sounds, clustered too densely, and approaching with far too fierce a momentum.
Between one and two thousand meters away, a mass charge of at least four to five hundred people was converging from three directions, the roaring explosions of their source energy apparatuses forceful and fierce.
"Enemy attack!" Regimental Commander Li Wangqiang shot to his feet with a roar, drawing his sword.
Today's wedding banquet was not missing this many guests. Furthermore, if these were people from the Sole Witness Legion, there was no way they would squander source energy blocks to burst-travel like this.
At bottom, instinct alone told them these people had not come to offer congratulations—this was an assault.
Present here were far too many veteran soldiers with keen senses and rich battlefield experience.
"Fuck your mothers..."
*Clang! Clang, clang...*
On the training ground, beside the banquet tables, cups filled with wine were set down... Regardless of rank or status, all the guests swiftly rose and drew their blades, facing outward in three directions to shield those without combat ability in the center.
"Who are they?!"
"How did they get here?!"
Amid the chaos, people shouted in sheer bewilderment.
They had never expected this—could never have imagined it. This was the defense sector of Huaxia's Sole Witness Legion, even if it lay relatively close to the border...
"Wait, fall back! Anyone on the outer ring, pull back! Don't go throwing your lives away!"
Yang Wudong's urgent voice rang out:
"There are too many of them, and they're strong... Fuck! There's a top-tier!"
From the nearing roar of bursting apparatuses alone, they could discern the presence of a top-tier. Moreover, the enemy's average level was remarkably high; their overall fighting strength far outstripped the Azure soldiers present.
This was not because the innate caliber of Azure soldiers was lacking, but because of the scarcity of source energy. Though Azure squads trained every day, actual combat training with source energy amounted to less than four hours a week.
The rest of the time, they relied on going out on missions—using combat in place of drills.
Thus, unless this incoming force was an elite force assembled from countless squads, they were in all likelihood private soldiers, fed and cultivated with source energy blocks by big shots...
The tactical assessment was grim in the extreme.
"Call for reinforcements... Form ranks! Hold the line!"
"Cover the non-combatants to pull out first."
Regimental Commanders Li Wangqiang and Yang Wudong leaped onto tables one after the other to direct the defense.
"Old Commander!"
*Clang!* Shen Fengting drew his blade and said, "Don't look at me." At the same time, the old man felt a surge of anxious bewilderment in his heart. *What in the world is going on?*
Right now on site, around one hundred and fifty combat-capable Huaxia personnel rapidly began forming battle arrays, even though they did not yet even know who was attacking them...
"Non-combatants, hold on, don't rush to retreat! Think about it—why isn't there an attack from that side? Could it be a trap?!"
"Makes sense. Send a squad to scout ahead."
"..."
The scene was orderly, yet clamorous.
"Fuck... it's Alphonse. It's that old dog Alphonse's men!" Qin Guowen was the first to realize, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Squad 1777's station lay relatively close to the national border. Due to the special nature of the Azure Alliance, there were no dedicated border defense deployments, but surveillance by the Rejecters was nonetheless present.
Therefore, outside of full-scale war, an assault of this scale—the armed entry of four to five hundred combatants—could never have appeared here out of nowhere unless disguised as an internal Azure redeployment.
Consequently, the enemy not only had to belong to Azure, but had to be a high-ranking official with clearance for "border-crossing" secrets.
Thinking along these lines, Alphonse was the most likely culprit.
He matched every single criterion, and right now he was being backed into a corner by Han Qingyu, forced toward a final battle to the death.
...
The incoming enemies were indeed Alphonse's men.
The reason Alphonse had chosen this course of action was exactly as Qin Guowen had deduced: driven to despair, he had cast all caution aside like a cornered dog leaping over a wall.
As for why he chose to attack Squad 1777's station at the risk of exposing himself, Alphonse had a two-fold objective:
First, secure a substantial number of important hostages.
Second, extract the location and address of Han Qingyu's family from Lao Jian, who was suspected of knowing it.
It was not that Alphonse had never tried to uncover information about Han Qingyu's family before; he had simply maintained some reservations then and refrained from going to such extremes, even finding excuses to pressure the Alliance on the matter.
The problem was that ever since the day Han Qingyu's degree of source energy fusion was tested and Chen Buer handpicked him for the Sub-Sequence, Han Qingyu's personal records had been thoroughly concealed and modified.
Later, it became a super-secret such that even the Alliance Council and the Alliance at large could only access a flurry of false information.
"Alphonse?!" Lao Jian was startled for a moment, then pondered for two seconds.
"Squad 1777, push forward! Prepare to fight to the death!"
Dressed in his wedding suit, clutching his blade in front of his bride, today's groom—the captain of Squad 1777—raised his weapon.
Alphonse was not merely the mortal enemy of Han Qingyu and the others; he was the mortal enemy of all of Squad 1777. He owed 1777 in blood and lives. What was more, today Squad 1777 had nowhere to retreat.
"Yes, Sir!"
Amid unified cries of assent, Squad 1777's two existing battle formations pushed outward.
The front ranks stood firm without yielding an inch.
"Brothers present, if you get the chance, please escort the non-combatants out first! I beg of you!" Outnumbered and outmatched, Lao Jian shouted as he stepped forward to stand alongside his soldiers.
Footsteps followed close behind him. He looked back over his shoulder. "Why are you still here?!"
"I..." Shang Nianhua looked at him with reddened eyes.
"Go! Head over to the non-combatants and wait for a chance to evacuate," Lao Jian urged. "This is no time for sappy tears and runny noses, Shang Nianhua... Fine, I love you. Madly."
It was the first time he had ever uttered such words. With a whoosh, Lao Jian burst his apparatus and lunged forward.
"If it's a girl and she isn't pretty, I'll force Han Qingyu to marry her!"
His voice drifted back through the air as he touched down at the very front of the battle line.
"Here they come!"
The howling of the enemy's apparatuses drew near!
*Boom!*
A chaotic collision of explosive bursts erupted.
From three directions, dozens of enemy vanguards leaped into the air with raised blades, slashing down toward the banquet ground.
The Huaxia soldiers arrayed in three directions gripped their weapons and looked up, braced to meet the charge.
Behind them, the non-combatants waiting for a chance to retreat also stared up into the sky...
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...*
*Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash...*
Amid the sounds, bodies plummeted from midair. Enemies, already dead, dropped from the sky like sparrows struck down mid-flight, hitting the ground with dull thuds.
The order of their falls traced outward from the direction of the command platform behind them, curving forward in two arcs to the left and right.
Those were the trajectories carved through the air by two dead iron straight swords...
At the same time, the enemy in front—layered in rows of ten to twenty men—were leaping up from the slope below in a coordinated slash.
*Clang!*
The rasp of dead iron scraping against dead iron rang through the air as a sword was drawn.
People looked up to see a suit of iron armor drawing a sword, shooting directly overhead.
The iron armor raised a two-handed knight broadsword.
*Boom!*
It struck with just a single slash, and nearly twenty enemies in the front were cleaved together, hacked into a tangled heap, and sent crashing down.
Then, the iron armor landed—*thud*—standing with its back turned at the very front of the formation, right on the edge of the slope.
Everyone stared numbly at the back of the iron armor.
They didn't recognize it. The appearance and weaponry of this iron armor were different from Rusty Sister's, yet there was an unmistakable sense of familiarity.
*Pitter-patter, pitter-patter...*
A shower of blood rained down from the sky.
"We only let them get this close because we had to evacuate the villagers and set up a counter-encirclement to make sure nobody got away... Bladesmen seeing blood on their wedding day—that's not an issue, right? Captain, Sister-in-law."
A voice both familiar and long-unheard, carrying a tinge of awkwardness and apology, came from behind.
Lao Jian froze.
"It's fine. It's red—festive."
Shang Nianhua managed a smile as she spoke.
"Yeah. And what a coincidence—three years ago, my squad picked out a reserve Eraser name, and it happened to be Scarlet."
Captain Lao replied calmly as he slowly turned his head, casting his gaze toward the top of the command platform.
Chapter 557