A makeshift sled ground to a halt on the small slope behind the battle formation, scraping across the ice with a rapid *shhk-shhk*.
Gu Zhazha had been dragged all this way by those four soldiers under his command.
His physical condition was such that he was merely keeping a thread of life tethered by life source energy blocks, having recovered just enough to catch his breath; he was nowhere near fit to endure such a long, grueling march.
Furthermore, had Han Qingyu not already routed that swarm of Great Spikes in their rear, they never could have made it across even if they had dared risk their lives trying.
"Remember this, all of you—not one word about how I only came because I figured I was dead anyway. And don't mention that a bunch of Great Spike swarms behind us are already closing in and we couldn't hide no matter what... They know that on their own; the Rejectors will tell them."
Climbing off the sled, Gu Zhazha murmured a few quiet instructions before pushing himself upright and raising his head.
Up above, the row of big shots had all turned around together. Every gaze fixed upon him was filled with surprise and joy. Several parted their lips as if wanting to say something, but lumps caught in their throats, and in the end not a single word came out.
At the same time, the soldiers within the formation belonging to Gu Zhazha's regiment had eyes reddening completely, gazing at him in tearful excitement.
*Judging by this, Major Qing probably hasn't had the chance to tell them I'm still alive... Wait, he didn't just forget, did he?*
Well, either way, the feeling wasn't half bad: *Your boss has one breath left, and I've come to join you for our final battle...* Gu Zhazha did his best to keep his footing steady, slowly stepping across that ridge of ice and onto the glacial rock.
...His gaze shifted forward—and suddenly his heart thudded violently, *thump-thump-thump-thump-thump*, his body staggering as he nearly dropped dead on the spot.
"What... the... actual... fuck!"
With the help of the Huaxian expletive's magical power, he managed to steady himself and catch his breath, taking roughly less time to recover than anyone else present had.
Without bothering to explain his condition, Gu Zhazha marched straight forward, stepped into the same row as the big shots to reclaim his post, took two deep breaths, and said:
"Let me go."
Everyone feared death; even those who had resolved to die inevitably clung to a sliver of illusion and hope before the final moment arrived. Gu Zhazha was even less afraid to die than the rest only because he truly was on the brink of death. On this battlefield, truly effective, timely medical treatment would never arrive; no matter how many life source energy blocks he had, they could not keep him clinging to life forever.
He did not have much time left.
"Give me a squad. I'll go see if I can lure them out." As he spoke, Gu Zhazha drew his battleblade into his grip and squeezed tight.
Faced with the situation before them, this was likely a tactic that anyone could—and would—think of: find a way to draw off part of the Great Spike swarm first, and then assault the tractor field. The odds would certainly be better.
However,
"It's useless," Wen Jifei said, shaking his head. "If they were going to come out, they could have lunged at us the moment we stood here."
Stream Blades had been standing here for a short while now, completely exposed to the Great Spikes' line of sight. Yet the densely packed swarm around the tractor field had not moved an inch... Wen Jifei made a vague tracing gesture with his hand and said, "They must be under strict orders not to leave the perimeter of the tractor field under any circumstances."
"Yeah, most likely. Besides, there's no need for them to take the initiative to attack. Intelligence from the Rejectors says the swarms returning from other battlefields to reinforce them are already encircling us," the Little Prince said.
"There's also Daie. Communications from the Western Front say Daie managed to shake off Pegmont and has been missing for a while. It's very likely on its way back right now—it might even have already arrived," the Little Prince added.
Humanity still did not understand high-tier Great Spikes like Daie well enough, so they had no choice but to anticipate the worst-case scenario.
"What about Pinkhair?" Iron armor clattered as Rusty Sister suddenly tilted her head and asked.
"There's no way he..." Wen Jifei was still in the stage of guessing about Pegmont's special trait, but he already knew about the Hope List. Thus, he figured that the people on the Azure Board of Elders would never let Pegmont come here; they wouldn't allow both him and Han Qingyu to be beneath the tractor field at once, just like the old proverb: one must not put all their eggs in one basket.
"He's coming. On his way. Though the fact that he could actually tangle with Daie for so long really completely exceeded my imagination." The Little Prince gestured toward the communicator in his hand.
Inconceivable as it was, the fact that Pegmont could battle Daie one-on-one was indisputable reality.
In that case, the impact he could have on this battlefield would be immense... As someone who was perpetually trying to survive, an eternal "egoist," the Little Prince had already taken the initiative to act on his own, calling Pinkhair on the high-level channel earlier.
Pegmont had answered, using Makarov's communicator, saying he had already set off and was on his way, and that he hadn't seen Daie.
However, right after those two sentences, the connection cut out. That idiot had inexplicably severed the high-level channel out of nowhere.
The Little Prince had no idea that the reason Pegmont cut the high-level channel was that on that bullshit channel, several old bastards claiming to be from some Board of Elders had been constantly nagging him, urging him to turn back and telling him that the people beneath the tractor field had zero chance of survival...
"Bullshit! It's just a damn tractor field! If Han Qingyu has the guts to go hack at it, and Wu Xu has the guts to go hack at it, why the fuck shouldn't I?! I'm way stronger than Wu Xu, and I'm practically neck and neck with Han Qingyu—a hair's breadth from a tie at most! Besides, I just slashed Daie so hard it was dodging all over the place! Are you fuckers blind?!"
Those were the parting words Pegmont had left the Azure Board of Elders before disconnecting the high-level channel. He had blasted them into stunned silence, yet they didn't dare refute Pegmont's assessment of his own strength.
"What do we do? Wait for him?" He Tangtang asked.
"If we wait for him, we might just end up waiting for Daie to return first." In fact, the outcome of waiting for Pegmont would inevitably be Daie arriving first, Regimental Commander Black Tooth said.
"Yeah. And besides, our time is likely running out." Wen Jifei turned his head, gesturing behind them. There, in a place not yet visible, the Great Spike swarms from the other battlefields were madly converging to surround them.
"I'll go give it a try first," Han Qingyu finally spoke up, sounding quite nonchalant.
Yet as the core team looked at him, given his current physical condition, he most likely couldn't unleash another Ten Thousand Blades Paying Homage. Even if he could, it wouldn't be enough. To blast through the spectacle before them, he would probably need to unleash it ten times.
*Shhk!* Han Qingyu stepped forward two paces, drew his large blue-glow column sword, and drove it into the ice layer, embedding it into the frozen surface.
This made him look like a pile-driving laborer.
Treating the blue-glow column sword like a pile, he embedded it right before the frontline of the Stream Blades army.
"Watch closely," he said.
"Okay," Wen Jifei nodded.
Then, with a smooth *whoosh*, Han Qingyu drew the small blue-glow column sword, swung his arm forward, and hurled it toward the Great Spike swarm.
The column sword traced a parabola through the air...
With two more crisp *shhk-shhk* sounds, Han Qingyu already had his twin blades drawn in hand.
*Screee-oww!* The small column sword landed into the Great Spike swarm, striking an outer position not too deep inside. This was likely humanity's very first direct strike against the Polar tractor field, and they finally let out a sound.
Immediately following: *Vrrr—BOOM!*
Propelled by the attraction of the column sword, Major Qing's twin-blade-wielding silhouette crashed into the Great Spike swarm like lightning.
From the glacial rock, in the observing eyes of Wen Jifei and the others, the contrasting visual in that instant looked just like a gnat the size of a rice grain plunging into an enormous black hole.
Chapter 817