Suddenly, a loud commotion broke out!
An uproar swept through the surroundings, and the crowd fell into turmoil. Daie, who had agreed at dawn to return only when the sun rose tomorrow, had appeared again. After merely half a day, it stood in the air once more.
"Time is up," Daie said in its rasping voice from the sky.
"You idiot, don't you even know what 'tomorrow' means?!" Pegmont sprang up and cursed. "Did you think that once the sun hits the middle of the sky, a day has passed?!"
That was very likely... Daie glanced at him.
It ignored him.
Turning back, its gaze swept across the dense masses of Oceania residents gathered along the shoreline.
"It seems you do not know fear." The churning, rasping voice spread outward again, and at that very moment—whoosh!
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Daie abruptly plunged from the air.
It struck straight toward the surface of the sea.
Boom! The instant one of the warships anchored offshore was hit, the entire vessel disintegrated into fragments.
Neither the residents on board nor the Azure escort soldiers survived.
"...Ah!" Along the entire coastline, all the civilians screamed in panic, their composure crumbling.
Simultaneously, shwing! Every Azure soldier drew their blade in fury and charged forward, their high-tier combat power exploding in full force... It was an explosion of fighting power, but even more so an eruption of immense, long-suppressed emotions.
Every single person seemed ready to lay down their life, willing to die fighting right there...
Yet Daie was already back in the air.
It stood beside the craft, blade in hand.
It was simply too fast. Without prior preparation by peak combat powers, there was no chance to intercept it.
"Fear me," Daie's voice rippled through the air once more.
At the same time, the Great Spike craft hovering behind the ships, as well as those pressing forward from the land, all moved closer and adopted an attack posture.
"..." Pegmont wanted to curse at it again, but Makarov clamped a hand tightly over his mouth, terrified that if they provoked Daie, it would strike at the ships again instead of killing him.
"Kill the person next to you... Kill!" Daie addressed the ten million people. Then, slowly turning its head, it looked at the Azure soldiers along the coast. "I give you the same opportunity."
***
South America battlefield.
It truly was a red-shoulder. Several hours after the Antarctic forces had landed and settled in, yet another red-shoulder had arrived.
Having completed its ejection, the grounded craft stood open. A common Great Spike and a red-shoulder stood upright with blades drawn, then began advancing from the rear toward this position.
Dawn had not yet broken. Under the starlit night sky, the red-shoulder's physique appeared immense and terrifying.
"Fuck this shit."
He Tangtang, Boss Dao, and Pang Jinghe—the three "experts"—stood with blades drawn and cursed in unison.
They did not even dare to yell too loudly.
In truth, there was still some distance between them. The red-shoulder was gradually accelerating, shifting from a walk into a run.
Behind He Tangtang and his companions, the vast majority of soldiers had only just become entangled in the melee.
Perhaps, regardless of casualties, the top combat powers could forcibly extricate themselves. But what use would it be if they did? Before a red-shoulder, they did not even have the qualification to stand their ground.
Furthermore, because so many were trapped in the chaotic fight, most would not even have a chance to flee.
As for the more than a thousand wounded in the fortifications, they had no chance of escape whatsoever.
There was no super here.
Milla glanced back and saw it. Her initial reaction was to tell them to run... but the words caught in her throat. She turned back and continued firing into the chaotic battle.
"What do we do?" Pang Jinghe's hand trembled around his blade. In the past, he might have charged forward with calm confidence, but now he already knew that he could not even defeat He Tangtang.
"I'm the strongest here," He Tangtang said. "You two take the wounded and run first."
"Strong my ass! I'm your boss!" Boss Dao cursed.
At the same time, the more than a thousand wounded, predominantly from Azure, sheltering in the fortifications noticed the red-shoulder as well. Under these circumstances, hiding was entirely out of the question.
And as for running...
"Mr. Boss Dao," soon, an Azure officer leaned halfway out of the fortification and spoke with a smile.
One of his legs was nearly severed, supported only by source energy.
"What is it?!" In his foul mood, Dao Dali turned and barked fiercely.
"A red-shoulder. Most of the wounded here know for sure that they can't get away," the officer said. "You should run. Take those who can still run, and tell the soldiers in the rear to run as well. Scatter and flee—some will manage to survive."
"We will assign some men to take over the melee and let everyone disengage, and the rest will go stall the red-shoulder..." the officer continued.
"You want the wounded to be cannon fodder?! What kind of dog shit for brains came up with an idea like that?!" Boss Dao was furious, his eyes rimmed with red.
Though he knew that among those choosing to die, the Azure officer had included himself.
Rebuked, the officer looked at him and still smiled. "Thank you, but this is already the best plan we have. We were going to die anyway. If we don't do this, everyone here will die."
What he meant was that against a red-shoulder, whether they were healthy soldiers or wounded made virtually no difference—they were all just fragile lives.
Rationally speaking, this was indeed the wisest and most feasible choice at present.
Yet Dao Dali had never been a wise or rational person. "Get lost! I'm a super combat power, didn't you know?" he said.
This time, the officer could not help grinning broadly, the corners of his mouth curving wide. "You're not. We could tell long ago. It was very obvious—nobody called you out on it, that's all."
Boss Dao: "..."
"The civilian major general beside you isn't a super combat power either. He might even be weaker than you."
Pang Jinghe: "..."
"Private He Tangtang, the weakest existence in Major The Qing's squad," the officer continued.
He Tangtang: "..."
"All right, time is short. Do as I said." Seeing that none of the three spoke, the Azure officer grew solemn.
Then, all the wounded in the fortifications climbed out of the trenches, grabbed their blades, and stood up.
At the same time, in the melee behind them, almost everyone was distracted by the commotion and looked back...
"Run! Run, quickly!" they shouted.
"Miss Milla, run!"
Black Tooth and Lao Xiu also shouted urgently, wanting to charge over.
Yet Boss Dao, He Tangtang, and Pang Jinghe still stood where they were.
"Do as I said!" the officer suddenly roared in fury.
Right then, whoosh! A piercing sound tore through the air.
In the distance, the red-shoulder exploded with speed, hurtling toward them.
"No." Boss Dao turned stubbornly toward the red-shoulder and slowly raised his blade. "I can still manifest miracles... Did you think Han Qingyu's slogan was just a bluff?!"
Hoo!
Hoo!
Throughout the subsequent discussion, He Tangtang had not uttered a single word. He merely breathed, regulating his sub-top tier source energy surge, which might prove utterly useless, and kept his eyes fixed on the red-shoulder.
The weakest existence in Major Qing's squad? Yes. But our style has never been to waste words on the battlefield—even if we can't beat them, we still slash!
Hum! He Tangtang's device suddenly erupted.
Hum! Hum!
Two more successive bursts of source energy erupted.
He Tangtang, Dao Dali, and Pang Jinghe unleashed their full strength one after another, charging head-on toward the red-shoulder.
Nobody had time to stop them. Their sprinting silhouettes gradually blurred into the night.
Closing in.
Closing in.
Along the straight line between the three and the red-shoulder lay a small dirt mound just over a meter high. Both sides could see each other, and both sides were in a full sprint.
"Run!" The voices of the three carried back on the night wind.
Then, faintly, someone seemed to shout: "Boss Dao has manifested a miracle!"
If it was Dao Dali, this was probably the first time he had ever shouted it himself.
Then,
an aggrieved voice called out: "I really have killed a super before, I really have!"
Another voice roared: "I'll eat you alive!"
The night was hazy.
The red-shoulder's figure drew closest, looming at its largest.
Thump!
Kicking off the base of the mound, He Tangtang leaped into the air and slashed upward.
Thump, thump!
Boss Dao and Pang Jinghe kicked off the base of the mound and leaped up to deliver their slashes.
"No..." With her vision blurred by tears, Milla could no longer distinguish which silhouette through her sniper scope was He Tangtang's back. She murmured in anguish, tears streaming down her cheeks.
At the same time, more cries of grief arose beside her and behind her.
Boom! The mound shattered, sending dust, dirt, and stones flying into the air.
A slash landed, striking home... followed by a deafening crash.
The three collided violently with the red-shoulder.
A fierce clash of metal on metal rang out...
...The red-shoulder stood still.
Motionless.
It swayed.
Then slowly fell backward.
Thud!
The massive, heavy body slammed against the ground.
The red-shoulder was dead... Everyone charging from behind froze stiffly some fifty meters away.
He Tangtang, Boss Dao, and Pang Jinghe were still alive, standing on the mound that had mostly crumbled away.
The three looked at one another in dazed bewilderment.
"I stabbed it to death." He Tangtang pointed his blade at a wound on the red-shoulder's waist and said earnestly, "Look, I ruptured its kidney."
Yet the moment those words left his mouth, a slit split open like a fine thread across the back of the red-shoulder's neck. Red and blue blood gushed out like a stream... quickly pooling across the ground.
Evidently, this was the fatal wound.
But who had delivered that cut?
There was no one else here.
"...I think it might have been me manifesting a miracle." Boss Dao could not find any wound he had inflicted. He had probably struck the iron armor without penetrating it; in fact, given the angle of his strike, it had been utterly impossible to hit the back of the red-shoulder's neck.
To be honest, he had even shut his eyes for an instant back then.
Therefore, the matter could only be summarized as: I manifested a miracle.
Could it be that I killed it? Pang Jinghe did not speak. As he looked on, he pondered silently in his heart. Could it be that I have a sudden, one-hit-kill slash that even I don't know about? Just like that time when I cut down Qu Zongxing in a single blow?
Meanwhile, off to the side, in a patch of dark, dense woods.
Ye Jian withdrew his gaze, smiled faintly, and looked down at the greatsword in his hand.
This sword had originally belonged to He Tangtang.
"Debt settled, kid," Ye Jian murmured with a soft chuckle. Then he turned his gaze southward. "Though Young Master Shiheng... you owe me another favor."
Han Qingyu had once said that in this source energy world, two high-end combat powers were severely underestimated: one was Wu Xu, and the other was Ye Jian.
In truth, this world held another person who had taken half a step into the Zenith.
He was the disgrace of Huaxia, the peak super of Snow Lotus, a friend of Young Master Shiheng, an "admirer" of Wen Jifei, and his most famous deed in recent years was having his weapon severed by a twenty-year-old Han Qingyu... His name was Ye Jian.
"I'm sorry!" The limping Azure officer hopped up from behind, his gaze filled with shock as he looked at the three on the mound.
Finally, his gaze landed on Boss Dao. He bowed slightly and said with sincere remorse, "I... I'm sorry. I really thought you weren't a super combat power, and you as well, Mr. He Tangtang... Major General Pang Jinghe."
"Haha, it's nothing." The three spoke almost in unison, then turned around to face the entire battlefield.
Chapter 690