Fighting Side by Side

Because Great Spike craft continued to arrive in the sky, neither of Stream Vanguard's airships could actually penetrate deep into the battlefield. They swept across the battlefield's perimeter. From the air, looking down at the widespread blur of shadows with fighting seemingly everywhere, they reflexively took this to be the main battlefield. Immediately, the airship Old Red pulled back toward the outer edge carrying nearly a hundred people to land first. Big Red took the risk of cutting in a bit further, ejecting all eight of its top-tier combatants onto the battlefield. Milla fired, drew back her rifle, turned, and pointed toward a hill on the flank of the battlefield. "There. Take me over there." This was the battlefield sniper position she had picked out from the air. Beneath the starlit night, the densely wooded hill lay pitch-black. The special Azure flight suit Milla wore to cushion impact had long since been stained from white to black. "Understood. Please get ready." The pilot took a deep breath. The airship decelerated, skimming low over the hilltop, and successfully set Milla down. It then pulled up quickly to disengage from the combat zone. The pilot notified the security personnel and ammunition loaders who had landed earlier on the periphery to bring rounds and make their way around as quickly as possible. *Bang!* Gunfire rang out again over the battlefield. Milla didn't wait, because every second here saw people hanging between life and death. Warriors in the midst of slaughter raised their blades, only to suddenly find the Great Spike before them toppling over. Then the Great Spike before the neighboring squad collapsed as well. One, another, and yet another... The rifle kept firing. "Second Lieutenant Wen?!" On the spot, a massive crowd swung around to stare toward the sound of the gunfire, shouting at the top of their lungs. Most of them were fighters from the City of Sin. Had they been Azure warriors, they never would have given away a sniper's direction and position on the battlefield, let alone yelled and shouted so recklessly. The people of the City of Sin knew nothing of such discipline. To them, the crack of that sniper rifle meant the God of Guns who had emerged from the City of Sin had returned to the battlefield. And if he was here, it generally meant those other names had returned as well. "Chicken? Chicken! Is that you?!" an emotional woman's voice pierced through the night. At this moment, had Wen Jifei truly been there, he probably would have recognized it as the voice of the shop landlady. She had come this time as well, along with the owners of the noodle shop, the barbershop, and the repair shop from that street. Just as Ao Yong and Qian Daofeng had once said, anyone who could peacefully run a shop in the City of Sin wasn't actually weak in combat—or, at the very least, had powerful figures backing them. Of course, those two themselves had not come this time. During the time since Han Qingyu and the others had departed, they had trained diligently... only to still turn out pretty useless. So Boss Dao hadn't let them come. On the battlefield, shouts and questions drifted away into the night wind. The dark of night concealed all. From her concealed firing pit, Milla faintly heard those voices, but she made no reply, answering only with shot after shot. This was precisely why she had chosen not to equip a silencer: Milla wanted more City of Sin fighters to know right away that Stream Vanguard was back. At the same time, a thought lingered in her mind: she hoped they would mistake her for Wen Jifei. Wen Jifei couldn't come. Even though he had made it sound so casual back then, later, while reflecting on the airship... she was the one who had led them ever since boot camp, after all, and she quickly pieced it together: *Something big must have happened with Qingzi back there, which is why Wen Jifei can't leave. And it's something they can't tell us directly...* With such thoughts, she couldn't help but feel worried and anxious. Milla desperately wanted to finish the fight here quickly and get back to look after them. Yet the battlefield gradually unfurling before her eyes seemed vast and sprawling, with no end in sight. Below on the battlefield—*swish, swish, swish, swish, swish...* The sound of source energy surges accelerating came from both sides. With several figures darting rapidly across the field and a hundred-man unit sweeping across in an unstoppable rampage, the Great Spikes before the warriors in this nearby sector were quickly reduced to practically none. Naturally, as far as the eye could see into the distance, shadows still ran and fought. Across the immense battlefield, nowhere seemed overly dense, yet there were no breaks or empty pockets either. "Is... is that them?!" "Yeah." "Boss Black Hand?!" Someone spotted Theodore, the former boss of Black Hand, one of the four great factions in the City of Sin. The man shouting was intensely emotional, for he had once been a member of Black Hand. "...Yeah," Theodore hesitated a moment before responding. He hadn't been a big boss for a long time now; these days, he was often called Little Ears. Immediately after, Lao Xiu, Commander Storm, Gu Zhazha, Black Tooth... one familiar name after another was called out in pleasant surprise. "Are you... Lieutenant Wu Xu?" someone asked cautiously. "Yeah." Wu Xu nodded, turning his head to scan the battlefield, searching. "Where are Boss Dao and the others? What about Shu You, Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet... where are they? Have the Azure super-tier reinforcements arrived? Did any red-shoulders appear? How many?" Theodore fired off an incoherent barrage of questions in his haste. Yet everyone shook their heads. "No idea." "Haven't seen them." Theodore froze, panic flickering in his eyes. "Isn't this the main battlefield?!" "Here? Don't know. Probably doesn't count." "Yeah, but everything is totally scrambled now. It's probably about the same everywhere." *Totally scrambled?!* ...Trouble. The people around him were constantly hailing the Rejectors' signal, but because the Rejectors' resources had almost entirely been committed to Oceania this time, the coverage over this battlefield was terrible as well. "Then in which direction was the place where you started?" Little Prince stepped forward and asked. "Over there." The shop landlady stepped forward, pointing a finger. Little Prince and the others recognized her at once. With no time for pleasantries, he asked sternly, "Can you be sure?" "Yes." The landlady paused, then nodded vigorously. "I'm sure." "Good." Little Prince turned, pointing his blade ahead. "We can't wait. We cut our way through first." Where the battle had initially begun was bound to be the Great Spikes' predetermined landing zone or the location where Azure had lured them to land. Because the fight had broken out there, subsequent Great Spike craft would inevitably reinforce that position first. The next moment, source energy roared. The hundred-odd members of Stream Vanguard fanned out laterally beneath the night sky, sweeping along their path as they charged to strike in the direction indicated by the shop landlady. "Take care of yourselves!" The parting concern from former bosses, friends, and rivals carried back on the wind. At the same time, the sniper fire from the flanking hill fell silent. ... Little Prince was right. The place where the battle had begun could still barely be considered the main battlefield. It still held the largest number of Great Spikes and the largest number of human warriors. Beyond that, an even more important indication was that Boss Dao of the Azure Dragon Gang was still holding the line here. *Rumble! Rumble!* Faint, heavy booms rumbled in from the distance on the flank. "Boss, Boss!" A top-tier fighter from the Azure Dragon Gang who had stayed behind fought his way back to Boss Dao's side, turning to point his blade as he said urgently, "Over there!" In the direction of the sounds, a vast expanse of black shadows began coming into view. "A swarm of Great Spikes!" Great Spikes had massed into a swarm elsewhere after all, and now they were charging straight toward them. What should they do? Dao Dali's thoughts panicked for a moment. Organize a counter-charge, or dodge out of the way first?! At this moment, he glanced at Pang Jinghe, then thought of himself. *Damn it, if only we were actual super-tiers.* A counter-charge? A counter-charge! Yet Boss Dao didn't know how to do that. The entire City of Sin didn't know how... They didn't even know how to set up a formation for a large-scale charge. *If I'd known it would come to this, I should have let those Azure officers who came earlier offering to help command stay,* Dao Dali lamented inwardly. Back then, the Azure officers had been driven off; the people of the City of Sin refused to take orders from Azure, refusing to give them any face at all. Now, it was too late for regrets. God only knew where those bastards had fought their way off to. *If we run, a lot of people will be overtaken and crushed, won't they?* *And then, this swarm of Great Spikes will sweep through the entire battlefield.* *After all, in other areas, people are fewer and more dispersed. It'll be practically impossible to muster a counter-charging formation.* At this thought, Boss Dao stopped agonizing. "Come on! Everyone who can make it, get over here! To hell with it all, we're charging into them first!" Dao Dali raised his blade and roared, his voice rippling out in waves in all directions along with his source energy. His increasingly sparse fringe of hair lifted and fell, lifted and fell in the wind stirred up by the surging source energy... like a flower perpetually blooming and withering, withering and blooming. Seeing the swarm of Great Spikes drawing closer and closer, if they didn't fall into line now, they wouldn't have the distance or space left for a charge. Beside Dao Dali, the Azure Dragon Gang's core combatants quickly moved to the front. At the same time, people all around were sprinting back... "Nobody runs this time! Whoever the fuck dares run, I'll kill them myself! Put your heads down and charge! If you die, you die, got it? Everyone dies eventually, and today's a damn fine day for it..." "I'll lead the charge!" Dao Dali's pre-battle speech remained thoroughly steeped in the style of the City of Sin. *Should I mention that I might actually be pretty weak? Forget it, better not.* *Once I'm dead, they'll know.* Dao Dali puffed out his chest, held his head high, and stood at the very front of the formation. "Don't worry, with a swarm that big, we couldn't outrun them even if we tried!" Behind him, fighters laughed and joked to mask their tension and fear. All the while clumsily forming ranks. Replacing source energy blocks. Stealthily wiping away sweat from their palms, drawing blades in preparation. Everything was set. They only awaited Dao Dali's command— *Boom!* *Boom!* A majestic rumble thundered. Ahead, to the left and right, two Azure battle formations suddenly appeared from the flanks. Sprinting wildly, charging straight into the swarm of Great Spikes. "For all that breathe, no retreat in battle, our bodies bar the sky!" they roared. "Boss! Dao! We'll! Take! The! Lead!" they shouted. Source energy raged. Mid-charge, some of the Azure soldiers turned their heads, finishing their shout and grinning toward Boss Dao's side... grinning... then turned back, crashing headlong into the swarm of Great Spikes.