The Entire Army Fights to the Death (Part 2)

Great Spikes possessed night vision. On Blue Star today, even primary school students knew this common fact, which Super Peg still hadn't learned—yet they were just as incapable of seeing through a sky churned full of sand and dirt. What was more, the Great Spike defensive formation directly ahead had already suffered the impact and disruption, leaving a breach. What was even more, the human now making his move was named Pegmont. Were it not for the fact that this fellow had recently started thinking of himself as weakened, he would without question rank among humanity's top four. A single area-of-effect strike unleashed in unison was nowhere near enough to stop one of humanity's apex combatants, the Above-Vault level Pink Peg. *Whoosh!* A streak of pink tore through the air, shifting erratically. From the perspective of the Great Spikes, only layered, overlapping afterimages flickered and warped ceaselessly. When a silhouette finally froze into focus, coalescing into a solid form— "Die!" Pegmont had already struck. *Boom!* The dirt and gravel raining down through the air were instantly drawn midair by the sheer force of his long blade's cleave, converging anew and blasting into the breach of the Great Spikes' circular formation. The sheer scale of this scene felt as though a god had reached into the ocean and yanked away a sheet of cloth, pulling countless leagues of seawater surging in its wake. The air throughout the surrounding area was swept clean in an instant. Pegmont's all-out attack, a close-range slash of his long blade, had yet to directly connect... yet in the front ranks of the Great Spike formation, at least fifty Black Armors and blue-sheened Great Spikes had their armor shattered in the surge of source energy, collapsing in rows like a falling wall. Those still alive were thoroughly pinned to the ground for the moment, unable to move. *Clang!* Amidst the dense barrage of flying stone and sand, four Red Shoulders and four blue-glowing column swords parried Pegmont's blade upward from below at the exact same instant. The clash resulted in one Red Shoulder dead and three wounded; all four colossal figures crashed to their knees with a sickening crunch. Times had changed. The era when a single Red Shoulder could throw all of Azure into helplessness had begun to shift forty years ago with that person's single slash. Today, humanity possessed dozens of high-end combatants capable of fighting Red Shoulders one-on-one without yielding an inch. As for the few standing at the very peak... if truly necessary, they could kill one in an instant. Pegmont was fighting for his life tonight. After the clash, he remained unharmed, but his indomitable momentum had been checked. *Whirr! Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh...* Through the dust above, Pegmont heard the sharp shrieks of column swords cleaving the air. Still, he chose to ascend. Because he knew he could not blast through those iron walls. They were the outermost hull plating of medium and large Great Spike source energy airships—thick, solid, and indestructible. Therefore, his only option was to head upward and leap over. The reason Pegmont had selected this route for his assault was that the upright hull here was slightly lower than in other places. The "city wall" the Great Spikes had built from airship hulls was uneven in height. Among them, some mothership hulls—even with portions buried underground—still rose anywhere from one to three thousand meters above ground. Using the recoil of that previous clash, Pegmont adjusted his balance and shot straight up into the air. *Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.* Six column swords: three from the left, three from the right. Six Red Shoulders in midair anticipated Pegmont's intentions and movement, sweeping their blades horizontally in advance. Their anticipation was correct. Yet Pegmont's speed and rate of ascent were faster than they had imagined. At this moment, the horizontal arcs of the six column swords could, at most, reach his ankles or the soles of his boots. There was no need to meet this strike. Bursting with source energy midair, Pegmont leaned forward while tucking his legs, his posture instantly shifting from vertical to horizontal. The six column swords whistled sharply as they slashed beneath his body. Simultaneously, a Red Shoulder appeared not far ahead, barring his path toward the iron wall. *Thrum!* Kicking out his legs like a frog, his source energy erupted a second time midair, accompanied by the limit eruption of his life source energy. Holding his blade before his head with both hands, Pegmont rocketed forward while spinning at a speed invisible to ordinary eyes. The blade struck, reached, *squelch*, and passed clean through. The Red Shoulder blocking his front still had its column sword raised in midair, but its chest and abdomen were already punctured right through. As its massive frame fractured and split apart, Pegmont's arrow-like figure suffered no pause whatsoever, piercing through the foul rain of blood and minced flesh churned up by his blade, continuing his charge toward the iron wall. A moment before touching the wall, he pulled back his blade, twisted his body backward, and kicked forward. *Bang!* With a heavy diagonal kick against the iron wall, his pink hair flying, Pegmont rebounded, curled tight, and surged upward once more... The top of the iron wall was in sight; he was about to clear it. But— "Fuck!" *Swish-swish-swish-swish-swish-swish-swish-swish...* Overhead, right from the top of the iron wall, Red Shoulders suddenly dropped like dumplings into boiling water. Rows of column swords plunged downward. At a rough glance, there were at least twenty Red Shoulders forming at least three tiers of interception. The attack route, objective, and position Pegmont had chosen for this assault were simply too obvious. While he was intercepted, broke through, and hacked his way forward, the Red Shoulders had long since gathered and deployed their forces... Do not forget, they were Red Shoulders; they were fast as well. And there were many of them. "Sigh!" Surrounding him was only the churning sand and gravel that had yet to fall, much of it still carrying tremendous force as it pounded against the iron wall. As long as Pegmont swung his blade, it would be drawn along in his wake. Yet it was useless. The upward path was completely sealed off, and aside from the single blade in his hands, Pegmont had only this airborne sand and stone. Such things might obscure vision, but crashing into Red Shoulders, they wouldn't even slow them down. Amidst the tumult, Pegmont sighed silently in his heart. There was something he had witnessed in part and heard of extensively: Han Qingyu could use the flame-decay property to manipulate dead iron weapons and command slaughter. In the most extreme instance, during his charge across Antarctica, a single command had summoned ten thousand blades like courtiers to an emperor, shattering an entire Great Spike interception phalanx. *Too bad I don't know how to do that, or else wouldn't I bust through in a minute flat?* *Damn it all, I don't even have a fucking property.* Thinking of this, Pegmont found a spare second to feel depressed. In truth, under such circumstances, he should have retreated first. He should have evaded this airborne interception wave and used the iron wall to push off, rapidly disengaging from deep within the Great Spike formation to avoid being surrounded upon landing. However, the source energy blocks Pegmont possessed were nowhere near enough to support him in mounting another assault and breakthrough like this. This assault was Pegmont's only attack tonight. From the moment he took his first step and cleaved his first slash, retreating to try again had ceased to be an option. He had even staked his life source energy on this gamble. "Kill!" *Whoosh!* "Pegmont Legion, the entire army fights to the death!" Amidst an eruption of source energy that sounded like a tsunami, Pegmont angled his body, leaned back, and thrust his blade upward from below... hurtling head-on into the more than twenty Red Shoulders and their three tiers of interception from above. *Clang... squelch...* In the first tier of interception, the central Red Shoulder died and tore apart. Yet the column sword in its hand also stabbed into Pegmont's left shoulder. At the same time, three other column swords slashed across different parts of Pegmont's body, inflicting superficial wounds. *Clang!* In the second tier of interception, the Red Shoulder he collided with head-on did not die. But as column sword and war blade crossed, its entire colossal body was blasted upward by Pegmont's rising momentum. At the same time, half the tip of another column sword thrust into Pegmont's ribs from the right. Because he was still ascending rapidly, it did not penetrate deeply before sliding out. "Aargh—!" This was the first human roar heard on tonight's battlefield. In that roar, pushing himself past every limit, Pegmont continued upward. Ahead, the Red Shoulder carried up with him from the second tier was still alive, but because the massive impact had slammed directly into its chest, its body was now bent like a shrimp, shoved backward and upward. The next instant, it died. The ten Red Shoulders of the third tier hacked their ten column swords downward without the slightest hesitation, tearing it to pieces, their momentum continuing straight toward Pegmont.