If one were to single out the person who had made the most rapid progress among the 1.8 million humans on the Antarctic battlefield, unless someone had just broken through to super combat power here, that person would undoubtedly be He Tangtang.
Along the advance across the Eastern Front, He Tangtang had already "eaten" four Red Shoulders, and eaten them in relaxed comfort—every single one had been beaten to the brink of death by Wu Xu, Theodore, Rusty Sister, and the others before being served right to his mouth.
In just a few short days, He Tangtang's combat power had soared madly, bearing down on peak top-tier...
If this trend continued and he always had enough Red Shoulders to eat, perhaps he would reach super combat power soon enough? And then surpass Wu Xu, surpass the Han Qingyu of the past? Even Chen Buer...
"Could it be that the Kidney Striker is the true Light of Humanity?!"
"After all, he's the Super Demon Killer Warrior; even his first love was extraordinary."
"Shh, he's the Yanxiu Terminator."
"..."
However, recalling Alphonse's later state, as well as the long days when He Tangtang himself had been stuck below top-tier, could such a rate of improvement truly continue forever?
As his strength increased, would his energy requirements grow greater? Could the tier of his food really remain unchanged forever? When the time came, who was going to catch a Daie or a Puda'er for him to eat?
At the next stage of breaking through, would a bottleneck appear again?
Regarding this series of questions, many among the upper echelons of Stream Vanguard had been privately discussing, speculating, and looking forward to what might come, yet He Tangtang himself did not care in the slightest.
"Whatever, just eat first."
He was already addicted to eating Spikes, possessed by a frenzied zeal. Whenever there was no food, an anxious He Tangtang would pester Wu Xu relentlessly, dragging him and a few others along on a hunt.
"Xu'er, what's wrong with you?"
In his field of vision, Wu Xu was waving vigorously at He Tangtang, gesturing for him to come over. Given Xu'er's usual temperament, the frequency of this waving seemed somewhat too rapid, and the amplitude of the motion far too exaggerated.
Strictly speaking, both of them were supposed to carry communicators. But He Tangtang was careless and often forgot his, while Wu Xu never forgot—only, most of the time when the communicator rang, he always felt that someone else would answer it, so he didn't need to.
And so, only after the communicator had been ringing continuously for nearly three minutes did Wu Xu finally realize that He Tangtang probably hadn't brought his, forcing him to take the call himself.
"Run!" His voice surged with source energy. For once, Wu Xu shouted loudly and urgently, jumping on his feet as he waved.
"What? In such a hurry to go where?" He Tangtang was dazed for a second. Reluctant to leave, he turned his head once more toward the suspected Red Shoulder high up on the volcano.
By this time, four minutes had already passed since the ground alert order had been issued.
Abruptly—BOOM!
"Holy... shit!" He Tangtang froze, staring blankly at the crater as a curse slipped from his mouth.
The volcano had erupted. A column of reddish-yellow lava burst forth violently, blasting tens of meters into the sky out of the crater before tumbling down the slopes like an overturned river.
The Great Spike he had just spotted was running down the mountain amid the lava. Closer now, it was plain to see that it wasn't a Red Shoulder at all, just a slightly large blue-sheened Great Spike.
It was inside the lava, yet it had not died.
The insulating properties of dead iron full armor, combined with the Great Spike race's defense and vitality that far exceeded humanity's, carved a chasm between life and death in the face of nature's violence.
"What the hell is going on?!" He Tangtang yelled as he turned around and broke into a mad dash.
"..." Wu Xu opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing.
He had wanted to tell He Tangtang the message delivered over the communicator: there was another Daie in Antarctica, and an ambush of Great Spikes lay beneath the surface ice.
Yet in reality, the Great Spikes from beneath the ice had not appeared; instead, the volcano had suddenly erupted.
If something couldn't be explained clearly, it was better not to say anything at all—that had always been Wu Xu's logic. Seeing He Tangtang draw near, Wu Xu turned, grabbed two accompanying soldiers with one hand each, and bolted toward the coastline.
He Tangtang arrived right after, not slowing his pace for an instant as he swept past, similarly hauling two accompanying soldiers along with him.
With their strength and speed, the volcanic lava couldn't catch them. Especially someone like Wu Xu—even if it caught up, he could probably endure it for quite a while.
"Good thing the main force didn't camp on the volcanic slopes. Otherwise, with a sudden eruption like this, the ordinary soldiers would definitely take heavy losses."
Looking up in mid-thought, He Tangtang's eyes showed brief confusion. "Xu'er! Xu'er! Why aren't we heading back to the encampment?"
"They went to the shore," Wu Xu replied, glancing back as he ran.
At the same time, the six thousand men of Stream Vanguard, who had taken the initiative to evacuate urgently toward the sea, stood frozen not far from the coast, staring numbly at the scene before them.
No Great Spikes had emerged from underground here either, but volcanoes were erupting from the sea.
The warships that had transported them here and lingered nearby, ready at a moment's notice to cover their evacuation, were too close to the coast, where the waters were not deep enough.
Columns of volcanic lava erupting from the seabed burst through the surface, congealing upon the waters into cast-iron colored, grotesquely shaped towers of hell that billowed with dense smoke.
In less than twenty seconds, more than half of the warships at sea exploded and sank, while the rest were caught in the devastation, battered and crippled.
"Do you require evacuation, over?"
"Does Stream Vanguard require immediate evacuation?"
"I saw you just now, but I've lost sight of you. Are you still there?"
Carrying deep grief and immense concern, voice transmissions cut through the purgatorial view and the billowing smoke over the sea, echoing through the communicator.
The fleet commander on the other end, though never met in person, had grown familiar through repeated communications—a senior colonel, an ordinary soldier of Huaxia.
And so were his crewmen.
"Here," Wen Jifei managed to utter just that single word, fighting down the ache in his chest.
"We're closing in on your position immediately. We'll do everything we can to reach you. Do not enter the water! Do not—" the voice replied at once.
The fleet had likewise received orders from Front Command; they knew the danger lurking under Antarctica's ice sheets and their own mission thereafter. Thus, the surviving warships still sought to push forward to pick up Stream Vanguard.
Yet the eruption of undersea volcanoes had not stopped. Lava continued to surge from the sea, and the closer to shore, the greater the peril.
Even as they spoke—BANG! Another heavily damaged small warship was blasted into the air by an undersea volcanic eruption, exploding and shattering in midair.
"No! We don't need it," Wen Jifei raised his head and answered formally. "No Great Spikes are attacking us here. We are safe."
"But—"
"But you are in extreme danger! Leave! Take your fleet and your men and pull back to deep waters! Right now, immediately!" Wen Jifei raised a hand in salute toward the small, obscured fleet on the sea. "That is an order, Sir."
"Leave first! Once you're safe, see if you can come back for us!" Little Prince leaned in close to the communicator, hastily adding a sentence.
In a crisis, there was no room for sentimentality, much less hesitation. Wen Jifei cut off the transmission immediately.
Then, he swiftly switched to another frequency.
"This is Wen Jifei. Reporting from the Eastern Front: no Great Spike units have appeared on the surface yet. However, Mount Erebus has erupted, submarine volcanoes are erupting, and our rendezvous fleet has suffered catastrophic losses. They have been ordered to withdraw to the deep sea." Wen Jifei's tone was relatively steady, yet involuntarily heavy. After a brief pause, he asked, "How is the situation elsewhere?"
Two seconds passed. Aside from chaotic, crackling static, no one answered.
"Hello? Hello! What's happening in other areas? What is your situation over there?" A tinge of panic finally crept into Wen Jifei's voice as he asked again, uneasy.
The Rejectors' Antarctic front base was naturally on the peninsula as well. Located there was not only Azure Command and an army of 1.2 million, but also medical stations, supply depots, press stations...
This time, amid the chaos, someone finally responded:
"Can't see clearly... it's chaos outside! High-altitude surveillance is blocked by smoke... But submarine volcanoes have erupted, nearly a hundred small volcanoes on land have erupted, and the Great Spike forces beneath the ice have emerged simultaneously!"
"Reporting to Second Lieutenant Wen: our position right now... is hell."
Chapter 790