The human warriors left behind on the battlefield gradually noticed something was amiss. At first they were somewhat bewildered, but when they finally saw the shift in the battlefield clearly, there was no joy or excitement whatsoever.
Even though the Great Spikes' distraction and repositioning rapidly eased the pressure of battle on them, this was not what they wanted to see at all.
After a brief hesitation, the human army launched an offensive once more. The more than thirty thousand troops remaining across the entire battlefield threw themselves like madmen at the stirring Great Spike craft on the ground, united in single purpose.
The veterans wanted to pin them down and stop more Great Spike ships from lifting off to pursue the evacuating fleet.
Lacking the overwhelming strength to blast directly through the source energy power compartments, they threw themselves straight through ejection ports that ships had not yet managed to seal.
In the cramped cockpits of the small Great Spike craft, close-quarters combat broke out—flesh against metal, dead iron straight swords and pillar swords stabbing into one another with nowhere to dodge.
Blood and flesh splattered in utter savagery...
Yet with the situation having reached this point, the veterans' influence over the escape was no longer as decisive as before.
This was all they could do.
At this moment, high above, the Doomsday Great Wall was the crux of everything.
Aboard the mothership Mechanical Cradle, which was accelerating at full speed, General Yergana had not heard Wen Jifei's previous words clearly. Even if he had, he would have found them incomprehensible and not bothered to respond.
His eyes pressed firmly to the observation scope, the old general pressed a fist tightly against his chest over his heart, tense and focused as he riveted his gaze on Puta'er and the rearguard Doomsday Great Wall in the sky.
Puta'er's rapid ascent and kinetic momentum seemed near the critical point where they would begin to wane.
Yet that changed nothing.
Because the striking distance it required was already well within reach.
A four-edged greatsword nearly a hundred meters long, trailing a blazing blue-white storm of energy, swept forward from behind its head like divine punishment, cleaving toward the Doomsday Great Wall's massive side hatch, which had still not been closed.
The hatch had been left open because taking on the last personnel had coincided with the ship pulling up into its ascent.
Beyond that, in the face of Puta'er's assault, the Doomsday Great Wall had certainly not stayed still to wait for death. It had been striving all along to accelerate and survive. But judging from the relative velocity and the mothership's maneuverability, widening the distance or evading effectively was already out of the question.
"It's over," General Yergana murmured under his breath, unable to help himself.
Then he suddenly roared at the top of his lungs, "Accelerate! Accelerate! Full throttle! Don't hesitate! No matter what happens, do not look back!"
Naturally, this order was not meant for Wen Jifei or the Doomsday Great Wall. The last thing the old general could do was do everything in his power to lead away the other sixteen human ships accompanying him.
The expeditionary fleet could still press on with their escape; they could even use the window when the collision took place to hit top acceleration, opening a gap between themselves and the pursuing Great Spike fleet to lay a solid foundation for their survival.
But the Doomsday Great Wall and those aboard her—Major Qing, Wen Jifei, Wu Xu, Jiang Longchi... would likely not be traveling with them.
"Today on Mars, humanity lost at least half its future and hope."
A grief-stricken murmur.
The old general finally pulled his gaze away from the scope. Stepping back, he raised his head and let out a deep sigh, his body—looking as though it had aged years in a single day—standing limp and numb.
...
Aboard the Doomsday Great Wall, Wen Jifei did not hear General Yergana's subsequent murmurs or the orders he issued. Of course, even if he had, he wouldn't have minded; he would have agreed.
Right after speaking that line—"Humans don't always make the right decision"—Wen Jifei had already left the observation scope and command console. Turning around, he walked straight outside. The destination he wanted to reach was directly facing the hatch just around the corridor corner, the exact place where Puta'er's four-edged greatsword was about to strike head-on.
There was no time left to say goodbye to Qingzi and Wu Xu, who were heavily injured and receiving examination and treatment. At the final moment, all schemes and strategies were useless; Wen Jifei chose to face the consequences of his decision directly.
"Hahahaha! Let it see! Let it see! Plague Chicken, I fucking loved how you were screaming your head off just now, haha! Looked just like a dumbass. All right, what I mean is, I loved how you went crazy at the end and decided to provoke that damn thing! That's what Stream Blades is about!"
He Tangtang's booming voice, laced with mockery, penetrated through the hull plates and cockpit door amid surging source energy.
He was at the hatch.
"Yeah, we all love it. I'm really glad you did that. Don't worry, Qingzi will like it too, and Xu'er." This time it was Rusty Sister shouting.
She was trying to comfort Wen Jifei.
She, too, was at the hatch.
Wen Jifei didn't have time to answer. In truth, even if there had been time, he might not have known what to say.
He hurried his steps and burst out the cockpit door toward the hatch. But as he ran, he suddenly stumbled violently, his center of gravity thrown backward as though struck by immense force, and his entire body pitched forward, slamming flat against the floor.
Whoosh—whoosh! The sound arrived after the kinetic force: two consecutive bursts of extreme source energy erupting together, merging into what seemed like a single boom.
An external force struck violently against the ship's lower flank. The immense momentum made the Doomsday Great Wall rock sideways in mid-flight—just once—shifting thirty or forty meters laterally and upward.
A mere thirty or forty meters was nowhere near enough for the Doomsday Great Wall to evade Puta'er's attack.
Yet the force that pushed it clearly exceeded a single elite combatant's burst—and came from more than one person.
In that split second, Wen Jifei understood: Tangtang and Rusty Sister had leapt out.
It was the two of them launching outward at the exact same instant, kicking off the lower edge of the hatch with coordinated force, that had caused the Doomsday Great Wall's sudden jolt and lateral displacement.
They had gone to intercept Puta'er.
When they were boarding earlier, Rusty Sister had been the last one aboard. Because He Tangtang was in the best condition and hadn't been taken away by medical personnel like Qingzi and Wu Xu, he had waited for her at the hatchway.
The two of them were originally tasked with closing the hatch during high-speed flight before retreating into the depths of the ship. But before they could seal it, Puta'er's skyward leap and cleaving slash had come.
He Tangtang and Rusty Sister had seen it almost immediately, but at the time, they hadn't leapt straight out to attempt an interception.
Because both of them knew full well that under those circumstances, facing Puta'er's overpowering ascent, stopping it was utterly impossible.
Chapter 951