Charging head-on into swarms of Great Spikes—that was Azure's job.
They had not let the City of Sin steal their job away.
Yet in this world, probably no one had ever imagined a day would come when Azure troops, in the heat of a charge, would roar a battle cry belonging to the City of Sin.
"Dao, lao, da, xian, ling le!"
Why did it have to be the hardest language, Huaxia? The fighters of the American Coalition hollered with clumsy accents, grinning widely.
Just like that, wave after wave blasted straight into the Great Spike swarm.
The swarm was blasted to a halt.
Blasted apart.
A brutal battle of attrition officially commenced.
...Stream Vanguard ultimately did not get to take part in this fight. After all, this was a war zone; no one could appear in time at every spot where crisis and desperation arose.
Even so, Azure and the City of Sin still won. They won with immense difficulty, but they won. With Stream Vanguard entering the fray, the Great Spikes across the surrounding area were temporarily cleared away.
At the same time, the craft descending from the sky had grown sparse by now. Estimating from the numbers and duration, the forces sent over from Antarctica had indeed mostly touched down.
Thus, for now, this place had ironically become the safest corner of the battlefield.
Carefully walking past large numbers of Azure soldiers who were tending to their wounds, the hundred-plus fighters of Stream Vanguard came before Boss Dao.
"Boss."
"Boss."
"Boss!"
Dao Dali nodded. Knowing this was no time for sentiment, he said bluntly, "Good. It's good that you came. Head out to the other sectors. We'll hold this place."
He didn't even ask why Han Qingyu and Wen Jifei hadn't come, because this was war... Boss Dao gestured around them and continued, "Who knows how many places are having it even rougher than here."
"Yeah," Wu Xu nodded.
Then the Little Prince stepped forward. "Boss, where are Shu You and Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet? And Azure's supers..."
"Off hacking red-shoulders," Boss Dao said.
Sure enough, red-shoulders had appeared.
"How many?!" When Zhu Jiaming blurted out the question, everyone from Stream Vanguard tensed up, especially those who had served under Shu You and Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet, their eyes full of worry.
"Two."
Boss Dao's answer brought them a momentary breath of relief.
"The ones we saw were two together. Whether any more came down after that, I wouldn't know. The moment those two red-shoulders touched down, they were drawn away," Boss Dao continued.
Using high-end combat power to draw red-shoulders away from the crowds was basic common sense. Otherwise, if they broke away from combat and chose to strike ordinary soldiers, it would be an absolute slaughter.
Moreover, due to their disadvantage in mobility, it was nearly impossible to stop them in time.
"Then how many are on our side?" Zhu Jiaming asked calmly.
"Five. Two from us, three from Azure," Pang Jinghe answered, his expression slightly awkward since there were supposed to have been seven.
Judging from that, the two supers Azure had sent as reinforcements had arrived in time.
Having heard this, everyone present felt somewhat reassured.
"How long has it been?" Wu Xu suddenly asked from the side.
"About an hour," a top-tier combatant from the Azure Dragon Gang replied.
"Damn it!"
While the exact same words were still in the minds of Wu Xu and the Little Prince, He Tangtang had already shouted them aloud.
Even though he couldn't hack red-shoulders himself, he had more than one person at his side who could, and he had seen and heard about battles against red-shoulders more than once or twice.
High-end battles involving source energy, unless one side was desperately evading and stalling for time, were almost always decided within ten to twenty minutes.
Yet now, with Shu You present in a five-against-two fight, an entire hour had passed, and not a single person had returned to the main battlefield.
Reasoning through it, there was a high probability that a third red-shoulder had entered the battlefield.
Meanwhile, the likelihood of four was very low. Because if there really were four... a red-shoulder should have appeared near here by now.
"Which direction did they go?" the Little Prince asked, keeping his composure.
"At first, it was that way, but..." Pang Jinghe pointed off in a direction and said.
Yet they were bound to change course along the way. The Little Prince understood this, but for now, they could only head out in that general direction to search.
Once more, he turned around.
All of Stream Vanguard turned around.
"You guys stay here this time. Of course, a group can go out to support the surrounding sectors," the Little Prince said. This time, he was leaving the vast majority behind.
Because the current situation was different from before.
Now, they were going to hunt red-shoulders.
Against a red-shoulder, even these elite fighters of Stream Vanguard would mostly face nothing but slaughter. Even a top-tier could only take a few blows.
The only ones present who could truly hold their ground before a red-shoulder were probably the monster Wu Xu, the super Theodore, and barely Corpse Man Weize and Commander Storm, two peak top-tiers.
"And me. If I really get down to fighting, I'm at the peak of top-tier too."
Having said that, Zhu Jiaming split the five into teams.
Wu Xu and he formed one group; the remaining three formed the other. The two teams would search along two separate routes in the same general direction. That way, whichever side found them would be able to provide backup.
The figures of the five high-end combatants soon vanished from sight.
Milla and He Tangtang were naturally left behind as well.
Afterward, when the remaining top-tiers formed squads and led the fighters out to support the surrounding sectors, they, along with the two top-tiers Lao Xiu and Black Tooth, were left behind with Boss Dao.
This arrangement was partly out of concern for Milla's safety,
and partly to protect the wounded Azure soldiers.
On a battlefield of this scale, the presence of both Milla and Wen Jifei was a double-edged sword. They were gods of death and Great Spike reapers on the battlefield, yet they themselves were very fragile and could never afford to get caught up in a chaotic melee.
Without any argument, and certainly without foolish stubbornness, Milla quickly found a sniper position.
She attached the silencer.
Captain Lady silently reaped the Great Spikes that appeared in her sights.
......
At this time, on the northeast coast of Oceania, a faint, hazy light had begun to tint the sky.
Everything had gone smoothly, without any mishaps occurring.
It was just that the mass evacuation of civilians remained unfinished.
Having watched for hours, Aleksey grew somewhat bored and stretched. Behind him, the sea churned with splashing waves, one of which suddenly crashed against the reef and wet his thigh.
Was the wind picking up? No.
Was the tide coming in? Not yet, either.
Since it was the sea, Aleksey didn't think it was all that strange. He casually turned his head and cast a glance across the distant waters.
"What... what is that?"
"Teacher!"
Hearing his shout, Gennady turned around.
Through the hazy light in the distance, a white warship was faintly discernible.
"Our ship," Gennady said.
"Yes, but why is our ship coming back?" Aleksey asked anxiously.
Northbound from Oceania, there should only be ships leaving right now, not returning. Any reinforcements that could come had arrived long ago, and that ship should have been one carrying civilians away.
It shouldn't be coming back.
Yet it was clearly drawing closer.
Chapter 684