The densely packed undead had completely surrounded this squad of Black Armored Army soldiers. The eerie light flickering in the eyes of the charging skeletons and the clumps of rotting flesh hanging from the zombies, seemingly ready to fall yet still clinging on, all battered at their nerves.
"Kill!" The burly man bellowed. The muscles in his arms bulged as he swung the broad, heavy saber in his hand, drawing a cold flash through the air and cleaving the two zombies at the front in half.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" The other nine Black Armored Soldiers followed with furious roars, hacking down one undead creature after another as they pounced at them.
The marrow from the skeletons as they fell apart, along with the rotting flesh and corpse fluid from the zombies, splattered over the heads and faces of the ten Black Armored Soldiers amid the slaughter.
Even though the Black Armored Soldiers were fully armed, their faces and hands were exposed. These poisonous, disgusting substances not only corroded their armor with a sizzling sound, but also melted the bare flesh on their bodies in an instant, leaving their skin torn and their flesh mangled.
Yet not one Black Armored Soldier cried out in pain. All they returned was even more savage hacking.
Still, people were not machines. Given enough time, they would grow exhausted, and exhaustion would create openings.
At that moment, one of the Black Armored Soldiers swung his blade a fraction too slowly. The zombie in front of him seized his arm and gave it a violent yank.
The soldier let out a scream as his arm was torn bodily from his shoulder. But he did not collapse. Instead, he stepped forward and kicked the zombie's head into a bloody mess. Then, while a skeleton's Bone Spear pierced his chest, he thrust his remaining hand straight into the skeleton's eye socket.
The red glow in the skeleton's eye sockets faded, but the soldier was torn to pieces by the undead surging forward from all sides.
"Xiaofei!" The other nine Black Armored Soldiers cried out in grief together.
"All men, hold your ground! We're fighting these damned undead to the death!" the burly squad leader roared. He knew Xiaofei could have retreated into the protective circle, but he had chosen to fight to the death because he knew that, after losing his combat ability, he would only drag down the entire squad. Now he knew even more clearly that, surrounded by the undead horde, they probably would not make it back—and they certainly would not live long enough to await the reinforcements still more than fifty miles away.
"Go to hell!" Tie Tou swung his blade at a zombie's neck, but the zombie's neck was as hard as steel. The blade sank only halfway in before becoming lodged there.
A smear of green marked the zombie's forehead. It was clearly a mid-level undead. Several hoarse snarls rumbled from its throat as its iron claws shot toward Tie Tou's heart like lightning.
Tie Tou's pupils contracted. He could not retreat. If he did, the formation would break, and the entire squad would be overwhelmed in an instant.
Just then, a soldier beside Tie Tou stepped forward and blocked his path. At the instant the zombie's sharp claws burst through the soldier's heart, he drove a heavy punch into the back of the blade stuck in the zombie's neck.
The zombie's head rolled to the ground with a gurgle. The Black Armored Soldier, however, stood stiffly against the headless corpse, the two of them leaning together as though embracing one another.
"Savage... ah..." Tie Tou completely lost control. Ignoring the bone blade of a skeleton descending toward his head, he smashed its hard skull apart with a single blow.
With a clang, Tie Tou's helmet was cleaved in two. Yet when the skeleton's bone blade struck his bare scalp, it left only a shallow mark.
Tie Tou looked like a madman. He knew only how to kill, completely disregarding the undead's attacks.
"Tie Tou, get a grip!" The burly man yanked Tie Tou back from the attacks of several undead, but several more wounds had opened across his own body.
"Captain, I want revenge! I'll wipe out these damned undead!" Tie Tou roared.
"Shut up! Even if only two men remain in our Black Armored Army, we must keep our formation. Only killing more undead makes our deaths worthwhile. If you die like this, what revenge are you going to get? Fill that gap, damn it!" the burly man shouted.
Tie Tou came to his senses and said no more. He merely glared with bulging eyes and silently swung the blade in his hand.
Tie Tou had joined the Black Armored Army only a month ago, and had followed this battalion to the Undead Mountain Range to relieve another battalion of Black Armored Army soldiers only ten days earlier. He had once been an elite soldier in another legion, entering the Black Armored Army after passing through round after round of selection.
He had always believed that the Black Armored Army stood at the pinnacle of the legions because of their formidable individual strength. Only now did he realize how terribly wrong he had been. The Black Armored Army's fame throughout the world relied not only on individual strength, but more importantly on team spirit—the awareness that they could die for comrades fighting shoulder to shoulder with them.
The comrade they had called Savage had never gotten along with him in ordinary times. Yet just now, he had resolutely stepped in front of Tie Tou and died in his place.
Of the ten Black Armored Soldiers, half had already died in battle. Only five remained, like tiny reefs amid a raging tide. Even knowing they would be smashed to pieces by the waves, they refused to retreat.
All five remaining Black Armored Soldiers were wounded, and corpse poison had spread throughout their bodies. Even if the undead did not tear them apart, the poison would still kill them.
"Flame Slash!" the burly squad leader roared. Flames flared from the saber in his hand as he cleaved the five undead before him in half at the waist. He seemed unable to catch his breath and stood frozen in place, whereupon several more undead immediately hacked toward him.
"Captain!" Tie Tou charged over and stood in front of his captain. At last, he too was about to die gloriously for his comrade.
Just then, a golden light flashed past. The heads and bodies of more than ten undead before Tie Tou were separated.
A youth dressed in a woman's robe appeared like a ghost. The Black Sword in his hand sent layers of golden Battle Qi sweeping out, opening a gap in the undead horde in an instant.
"What are you waiting for? Run!" Qi Bei shouted.
The five surviving Black Armored Soldiers came to their senses as if awakening from a dream. Supporting one another, they broke out of the undead encirclement, while Qi Bei stayed behind to cover their retreat.
The five Black Armored Soldiers staggered two or three miles away before stopping. They began taking out the antidotes they had prepared in advance. As long as they could temporarily suppress the corpse poison, they would be able to survive after returning to camp.
"Captain, who was that expert?" a soldier asked the burly man, who was lowering his head in thought.
"I don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but he looked very much like the commander's younger brother, Qi Bei. Nord," the burly man said. As soon as he finished, he shook his head, feeling that it was too unrealistic.
"That's impossible. The commander's younger brother couldn't even truss a chicken. How could he be so powerful?" Tie Tou said.
"Then I must have been seeing things," the burly man said no more.
"Poor brothers of ours... We can't even find their bodies now..." Tie Tou spoke in a low voice, tears glimmering in his eyes.
The others fell silent together. After a long while, the burly man said, "Ever since we joined the army, we've all been prepared to die in battle. To return wrapped in our horse blankets—that is our glory."
"Captain, the expert who saved us is coming."
The burly man looked over and saw Qi Bei running toward them with a large bundle strapped to his back by a rope made of tree bark. He was moving incredibly fast.
Only when he drew closer did they see that Qi Bei was dragging five sets of armor, along with the severed limbs and shattered remains of the soldiers who had died in battle.
"This is everything I could find. They were all fine men, and I respected them. This is all I could do for them." Qi Bei sighed and gently set the things down.
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